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CONTENTS.
Introduction
Text
Letters I - XIII
Chapters I - XXIII
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Cameron was finally executed with all the severities of the
law of treason; and his death remains in popular estimation a
dark blot upon the memory of George II, being almost publicly
imputed to a mean and personal hatred of Donald Cameron of
Lochiel, the sufferer's heroic brother.
Yet the fact was that whether the execution of Archibald Cameron
was political or otherwise, it might certainly have been
justified, had the king's ministers so pleased, upon reasons of a
public nature. The unfortunate sufferer had not come to the
Highlands solely upon his private affairs, as was the general
belief; but it was not judged prudent by the English ministry to
let it be generally known that he came to inquire about a
considerable sum of money which had been remitted from France to
the friends of the exiled family. He had also a commission to
hold intercourse with the well-known M'Pherson of Cluny, chief of
the clan Vourich, whom the Chevalier had left behind at his
departure from Scotland in 1746, and who remained during ten
years of proscription and danger, skulking from place to place in
the Highlands, and maintaining an uninterrupted correspondence
between Charles and his friends. That Dr. Cameron should have
held a commission to assist this chief in raking together the
dispersed embers of disaffection, is in itself sufficiently
natural, and, considering his political principles, in no respect
dishonourable to his memory. But neither ought it to be imputed
to George II that he suffered the laws to be enforced against a
person taken in the act of breaking them. When he lost his
hazardous game, Dr. Cameron only paid the forfeit which he must
have calculated upon. The ministers, however, thought it proper
to leave Dr. Cameron's new schemes in concealment, lest, by
divulging them, they had indicated the channel of communication
which, it is now well known, they possessed to all the plots of
Charles Edward. But it was equally ill advised and ungenerous to
sacrifice the character of the king to the policy of the
administration. Both points might have been gained by sparing
the life of Dr. Cameron after conviction, and limiting his
punishment to perpetual exile.
These repeated and successive Jacobite plots rose and burst like
bubbles on a fountain; and one of them, at least, the Chevalier
judged of importance enough to induce him to risk himself within
the dangerous precincts of the British capital. This appears
from Dr. King's ANECDOTES OF HIS OWN TIMES.
REDGAUNTLET
LETTER I
DUMFRIES.
Such was the import of the reflections with which you saddened
our parting bottle of claret, and thus I must needs interpret the
terms of your melancholy adieu.
And why should this be so, Alan? Why the deuce should you not be
sitting precisely opposite to me at this moment, in the same
comfortable George Inn; thy heels on the fender, and thy
juridical brow expanding its plications as a pun rose in your
fancy? Above all, why, when I fill this very glass of wine,
cannot I push the bottle to you, and say, 'Fairford, you are
chased!' Why, I say, should not all this be, except because Alan
Fairford has not the same true sense of friendship as Darsie
Latimer, and will not regard our purses as common, as well as our
sentiments?
and, to say truth, purely and solely that I might travel the same
road with thee. But it will not do, Alan. By my faith, man, I
could as soon think of being one of those ingenious traders who
cheat little Master Jackies on the outside of the partition with
tops, balls, bats, and battledores, as a member of the long-robed
fraternity within, who impose on grown country gentlemen with
bouncing brocards of law. [The Hall of the Parliament House of
Edinburgh was, in former days, divided into two unequal portions
by a partition, the inner side of which was consecrated to the
use of the Courts of Justice and the gentlemen of the law; while
the outer division was occupied by the stalls of stationers,
toymen, and the like, as in a modern bazaar. From the old play
of THE PLAIN DEALER, it seems such was formerly the case with
Westminster Hall. Minos has now purified his courts in both
cities from all traffic but his own.] Now, don't you read this
to your worthy father, Alan--he loves me well enough, I know, of
a Saturday night; but he thinks me but idle company for any other
day of the week. And here, I suspect, lies your real objection
to taking a ramble with me through the southern counties in this
delicious weather. I know the good gentleman has hard thoughts
of me for being so unsettled as to leave Edinburgh before the
Session rises; perhaps, too, he quarrels a little--I will not say
with my want of ancestry, but with my want of connexions. He
reckons me a lone thing in this world, Alan, and so, in good
truth, I am; and it seems a reason to him why you should not
attach yourself to me, that I can claim no interest in the
general herd.
Thus far I have fooled it off well enough; and yet, Alan, all is
not at ease within me. I am affected with a sense of loneliness,
the more depressing, that it seems to me to be a solitude
peculiarly my own. In a country where all the world have a
circle of consanguinity, extending to sixth cousins at least, I
am a solitary individual, having only one kind heart to throb in
unison with my own. If I were condemned to labour for my bread,
methinks I should less regard this peculiar species of
deprivation, The necessary communication of master and servant
would be at least a tie which would attach me to the rest of my
kind--as it is, my very independence seems to enhance the
peculiarity of my situation. I am in the world as a stranger in
the crowded coffeehouse, where he enters, calls for what
refreshment he wants, pays his bill, and is forgotten so soon as
the waiter's mouth has pronounced his 'Thank ye, sir.'
The faint, yet not improbable, belief has often come across me,
that your father knows something more about my birth and
condition than he is willing to communicate; it is so unlikely
that I should be left in Edinburgh at six years old, without any
other recommendation than the regular payment of my board to old
M--, [Probably Mathieson, the predecessor of Dr. Adams, to whose
memory the author and his contemporaries owe a deep debt of
gratitude.] of the High School. Before that time, as I have
often told you, I have but a recollection of unbounded indulgence
on my mother's part, and the most tyrannical exertion of caprice
on my own. I remember still how bitterly she sighed, how vainly
she strove to soothe me, while, in the full energy of despotism,
I roared like ten bull-calves, for something which it was
impossible to procure for me. She is dead, that kind, that ill-
rewarded mother! I remember the long faces--the darkened rooms
--the black hangings--the mysterious impression made upon my mind
by the hearse and mourning coaches, and the difficulty which I
had to reconcile all this to the disappearance of my mother. I
do not think I had before this event formed, any idea, of death,
or that I had even heard of that final consummation of all that
lives. The first acquaintance which I formed with it deprived me
of my only relation.
LETTER II
But credit me, Darsie, the sigh which escaped me, concerned thee
more than myself, and regarded neither the superior mettle of
your cavalry, nor your greater command of the means of
travelling. I could certainly have cheerfully ridden with you
for a few days; and assure yourself I would not have hesitated to
tax your better filled purse for our joint expenses. But you
know my father considers every moment taken from the law as a
step down hill; and I owe much to his anxiety on my account,
although its effects are sometimes troublesome. For example:
'To Noble House, sir! and what had you to do at Noble House, sir?
Do you remember you are studying law, sir?--that your Scots law
trials are coming on, sir?--that every moment of your time just
now is worth hours at another time?--and have you leisure to go
to Noble House, sir?--and to throw your books behind you for so
many hours?--Had it been a turn in the meadows, or even a game at
golf--but Noble House, sir!'
'I went so far with Darsie Latimer, sir, to see him begin his
journey.'
'Darsie Latimer?' he replied in a softened tone--'Humph!--Well,
I do not blame you for being kind to Darsie Latimer; but it would
have done as much good if you had walked with him as far as the
toll-bar, and then made your farewells--it would have saved
horse-hire--and your reckoning, too, at dinner.'
'I admit the general rule, sir,' I replied; 'but this was a
parting-cup between Darsie and me; and I should conceive it fell
under the exception of DOCH AN DORROCH.'
'D'ye mean to come round me, sir, PER AMBAGES, as Counsellor Pest
says? What is it to you where Darsie Latimer's fortune is
vested, or whether he hath any fortune, aye or no? And what ill
would the Scottish law do to him, though he had as much of it as
either Stair or Bankton, sir? Is not the foundation of our
municipal law the ancient code of the Roman Empire, devised at a
time when it was so much renowned for its civil polity, sir, and
wisdom? Go to your bed, sir, after your expedition to Noble
House, and see that your lamp be burning and your book before you
ere the sun peeps. ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS--were it not a sin to
call the divine science of the law by the inferior name of art.'
So my lamp did burn, dear Darsie, the next morning, though the
owner took the risk of a domiciliary visitation, and lay snug in
bed, trusting its glimmer might, without further inquiry, be
received as sufficient evidence of his vigilance. And now, upon
this the third morning after your departure, things are but
little better; for though the lamp burns in my den, and VOET ON
THE PANDECTS hath his wisdom spread open before me, yet as I only
use him as a reading-desk on which to scribble this sheet of
nonsense to Darsie Latimer, it is probable the vicinity will be
of little furtherance to my studies.
You smile, Darsie, MORE TUO, and seem to say it is little worth
while to cozen one's self with such vulgar dreams; yours being,
on the contrary, of a high and heroic character, bearing the same
resemblance to mine, that a bench, covered with purple cloth and
plentifully loaded with session papers, does to some Gothic
throne, rough with barbaric pearl and gold. But what would you
have?--SUA QUEMQUE TRAHIT VOLUPTAS. And my visions of
preferment, though they may be as unsubstantial at present, are
nevertheless more capable of being realized, than your
aspirations after the Lord knows what. What says my father's
proverb? 'Look to a gown of gold, and you will at least get a
sleeve of it.' Such is my pursuit; but what dost thou look to?
The chance that the mystery, as you call it, which at present
overclouds your birth and connexions, will clear up into
something inexpressibly and inconceivably brilliant; and this
without any effort or exertion of your own, but purely by the
goodwill of Fortune. I know the pride and naughtiness of thy
heart, and sincerely do I wish that thou hadst more beatings to
thank me for, than those which thou dost acknowledge so
gratefully. Then had I thumped these Quixotical expectations out
of thee, and thou hadst not, as now, conceived thyself to be the
hero of some romantic history, and converted, in thy vain
imaginations, honest Griffiths, citizen and broker, who never
bestows more than the needful upon his quarterly epistles, into
some wise Alexander or sage Alquife, the mystical and magical
protector of thy peerless destiny. But I know not how it was,
thy skull got harder, I think, and my knuckles became softer; not
to mention that at length thou didst begin to show about thee a
spark of something dangerous, which I was bound to respect at
least, if I did not fear it.
SHEPHERD'S BUSH.
Why, what a pair of prigs hast thou made of us! I plunging into
scrapes, without having courage to get out of them--thy sagacious
self, afraid to put one foot before the other, lest it should run
away from its companion; and so standing still like a post, out
of mere faintness and coldness of heart, while all the world were
driving full speed past thee. Thou a portrait-painter! I tell
thee, Alan, I have seen a better seated on the fourth round of a
ladder, and painting a bare-breeched Highlander, holding a pint-
stoup as big as himself, and a booted Lowlander, in a bobwig,
supporting a glass of like dimensions; the whole being designed
to represent the sign of the Salutation.
How hadst thou the heart to represent thine own individual self,
with all thy motions, like those of a great Dutch doll, depending
on the pressure of certain springs, as duty, reflection, and the
like; without the impulse of which, thou wouldst doubtless have
me believe thou wouldst not budge an inch! But have I not seen
Gravity out of his bed at midnight? and must I, in plain terms,
remind thee of certain mad pranks? Thou hadst ever, with the
gravest sentiments in thy mouth and the most starched reserve in
thy manner, a kind of lumbering proclivity towards mischief,
although with more inclination to set it a-going than address to
carry it through; and I cannot but chuckle internally, when I
think of having seen my most venerable monitor, the future
president of some high Scottish court, puffing, blowing, and
floundering, like a clumsy cart-horse in a bog where his efforts
to extricate himself only plunged him deeper at every awkward
struggle, till some one--I myself, for example--took compassion
on the moaning monster, and dragged him out by mane and tail.
One thing, however, I HAVE seen; and it was with pleasure the
more indescribable, that I was debarred from treading the land
which my eyes were permitted to gaze upon, like those of the
dying prophet from top of Mount Pisgah,--I have seen, in a word,
the fruitful shores of merry England; merry England! of which I
boast myself a native, and on which I gaze, even while raging
floods and unstable quicksands divide us, with the filial
affection of a dutiful son.
Thou canst not have forgotten, Alan--for when didst thou ever
forget what was interesting to thy friend?--that the same letter
from my friend Griffiths, which doubled my income, and placed my
motions at my own free disposal, contained a prohibitory clause,
by which, reason none assigned, I was prohibited, as I respected
my present safety and future fortunes, from visiting England;
every other part of the British dominions, and a tour, if I
pleased, on the Continent, being left to my own choice.--Where is
the tale, Alan, of a covered dish in the midst of a royal
banquet, upon which the eyes of every guest were immediately
fixed, neglecting all the dainties with which the table was
loaded? This cause of banishment from England--from my native
country--from the land of the brave, and the wise, and the free--
affects me more than I am rejoiced by the freedom and
independence assigned to me in all other respects. Thus, in
seeking this extreme boundary of the country which I am forbidden
to tread, I resemble the poor tethered horse, which, you may have
observed, is always grazing on the very verge of the circle to
which it is limited by its halter.
On the next morning I was about to set forth to the stream where
I had commenced angler the night before, but was prevented by a
heavy shower of rain from stirring abroad the whole forenoon;
during all which time, I heard my varlet of a guide as loud with
his blackguard jokes in the kitchen, as a footman in the shilling
gallery; so little are modesty and innocence the inseparable
companions of rusticity and seclusion.
When after dinner the day cleared, and we at length sallied out
to the river side, I found myself subjected to a new trick on the
part of my accomplished preceptor. Apparently, he liked fishing
himself better than the trouble of instructing an awkward novice
such as I; and in hopes of exhausting my patience, and inducing
me to resign the rod, as I had done the preceding day, my friend
contrived to keep me thrashing the water more than an hour with a
pointless hook. I detected this trick at last, by observing the
rogue grinning with delight when he saw a large trout rise and
dash harmless away from the angle. I gave him a sound cuff,
Alan; but the next moment was sorry, and, to make amends, yielded
possession of the fishing-rod for the rest of the evening, he
undertaking to bring me home a dish of trouts for my supper, in
atonement for his offences.
But the rest of my adventure would weary out my fingers, and must
be deferred until to-morrow, when you shall hear from me, by way
of continuation; and, in the meanwhile, to prevent over-hasty
conclusions, I must just hint to you, we are but yet on the verge
of the adventure which it is my purpose to communicate.
LETTER IV
SHEPHERD'S BUSH.
The riders began to make for the shore, and the interest of the
scene was almost over, while I lingered on the sands, with my
looks turned to the shores of England, still gilded by the sun's
last rays, and, as it seemed, scarce distant a mile from me. The
anxious thoughts which haunt me began to muster in my bosom, and
my feet slowly and insensibly approached the river which divided
me from the forbidden precincts, though without any formed
intention, when my steps were arrested by the sound of a horse
galloping; and as I turned, the rider (the same fisherman whom I
had formerly distinguished) called out to me, in an abrupt
manner, 'Soho, brother! you are too late for Bowness to-night--
the tide will make presently.'
'Are you deaf?' he added--'or are you mad?--or have you a mind
for the next world?'
'Best make haste then,' said he. 'He that dreams on the bed of
the Solway, may wake in the next world. The sky threatens a
blast that will bring in the waves three feet abreast.'
'Are you mad?' he said, in the same deep tone which had before
thrilled on my ear, 'or are you weary of your life? You will be
presently amongst the quicksands.' I professed my ignorance of
the way, to which he only replied, 'There is no time for prating
--get up behind me.'
'To Shepherd's Bush?' he said; 'it is but three miles but if you
know not the land better than the sand, you may break your neck
before you get there; for it is no road for a moping boy in a
dark night; and, besides, there are the brook and the fens to
cross.'
'Perhaps they might not have done so,' said I, 'if I had any
friends who cared about the matter.'
Why was it, Alan, that I could not help giving an involuntary
shudder at receiving an invitation so seasonable in itself, and
so suitable to my naturally inquisitive disposition? I easily
suppressed this untimely sensation; and as I returned thanks, and
expressed my hope that I should not disarrange, his family, I
once more dropped a hint of my desire to make compensation for
any trouble I might occasion. The man answered very coldly,
'Your presence will no doubt give me trouble, sir, but it is of a
kind which your purse, cannot compensate; in a word, although I
am content to receive you as my guest, I am no publican to call a
reckoning.'
Thou mayst laugh till thou lettest the letter fall, if thou wilt,
but it reminded me of the magician Atlantes on his hippogriff
with a knight trussed up behind him, in the manner Ariosto has
depicted that matter. Thou art I know, matter-of-fact enough to
affect contempt of that fascinating and delicious poem; but think
not that, to conform with thy bad taste, I shall forbear any
suitable illustration which now or hereafter may occur to me.
On we went, the sky blackening around us, and the wind beginning
to pipe such a wild and melancholy tune as best suited the hollow
sounds of the advancing tide, which I could hear at a distance,
like the roar of some immense monster defrauded of its prey.
When this duenna had made all preliminary arrangements, she took
from the well-filled pouch of my conductor, which he had hung up
by the door, one or two salmon, or GRILSES, as the smaller sort
are termed, and selecting that which seemed best and in highest
season, began to cut it into slices, and to prepare a GRILLADE;
the savoury smell of which affected me so powerfully that I began
sincerely to hope that no delay would intervene between the
platter and the lip.
As this thought came across me, the man who had conducted the
horse to the stable entered the apartment, and discovered to me a
countenance yet more uninviting than that of the old crone who
was performing with such dexterity the office of cook to the
party. He was perhaps sixty years old; yet his brow was not much
furrowed, and his jet-black hair was only grizzled, not whitened,
by the advance of age. All his motions spoke strength unabated;
and, though rather undersized, he had very broad shoulders, was
square-made, thin-flanked, and apparently combined in his frame
muscular strength and activity; the last somewhat impaired
perhaps by years, but the first remaining in full vigour. A hard
and harsh countenance--eyes far sunk under projecting eyebrows,
which were grizzled like his hair--a wide mouth, furnished from
ear to ear with it range of unimpaired teeth, of uncommon
whiteness, and a size and breadth which might have become the
jaws of an ogre, completed this delightful portrait. He was clad
like a fisherman, in jacket and trousers of the blue cloth
commonly used by seamen, and had a Dutch case-knife, like that of
a Hamburgh skipper, stuck into a broad buff belt, which seemed as
if it might occasionally sustain weapons of a description still
less equivocally calculated for violence.
That a fisher, who pursued the sport perhaps for his amusement as
well as profit, should be well mounted and better lodged than the
lower class of peasantry, had in it nothing surprising; but there
was something about all that I saw which seemed to intimate that
I was rather in the abode of a decayed gentleman, who clung to a
few of the forms and observances of former rank, than in that of
a common peasant, raised above his fellows by comparative
opulence.
All these observations, you may suppose, were made much sooner
than I have recorded, or you (if you have not skipped) have been
able to read them. They were already finished, and I was
considering how I should open some communication with the mute
inhabitants of the mansion, when my conductor re-entered from the
side-door by which he had made his exit.
He had now thrown off his rough riding-cap, and his coarse
jockey-coat, And stood before me in a grey jerkin trimmed with
black, which sat close to, and set off, his large and sinewy
frame, and a pair of trousers of a lighter colour, cut as close
to the body as they are used by Highlandmen. His whole dress was
of finer cloth than that of the old man; and his linen, so minute
was my observation, clean and unsullied. His shirt was without
ruffles, and tied at the collar with a black ribbon, which showed
his strong and muscular neck rising from it like that of an
ancient Hercules. His head was small, with a large forehead, and
well-formed ears. He wore neither peruke nor hair-powder; and
his chestnut locks, curling close to his head like those of an
antique statue, showed not the least touch of time, though the
owner must have been at least fifty. His features were high and
prominent in such a degree that one knew not whether to term them
harsh or handsome. In either case, the sparkling grey eye,
aquiline nose, and well-formed mouth, combined to render his
physiognomy noble and expressive. An air of sadness, or
severity, or of both, seemed to indicate a melancholy, and, at
the same time, a haughty temper. I could not help running
mentally over the ancient heroes, to whom I might assimilate the
noble form and countenance before me. He was too young, and
evinced too little resignation to his fate, to resemble
Belisarius. Coriolanus, standing by the hearth of Tullus
Aufidius, came nearer the mark; yet the gloomy and haughty look
of the stranger had, perhaps, still more of Marius, seated among
the ruins of Carthage.
'The foul fiend shall be clerk, and say amen, when I turn
chaplain,' growled out the party addressed, in tones which might
have become the condition of a dying bear; 'if the gentleman is a
whig, he may please himself with his own mummery. My faith is
neither in word nor writ, but in barley-bread and brown ale.'
The old woman shook her head, kissed the cross which hung from
her rosary, and was silent.
'Mabel will say grace for no heretic,' said the master of the
house, with the same latent sneer on his brow and in his accent.
'Not louder than to make old Mabel hear me,' he replied; 'and
yet,' be added, as she turned to retire, 'it is a shame a
stranger should see a house where not one of the family can or
will say a grace--do thou be our chaplain.'
The girl, who was really pretty, came forward with timid modesty,
and, apparently unconscious that she was doing anything uncommon,
pronounced the benediction in a silver-toned voice, and with
affecting simplicity--her cheek colouring just so much as to show
that on a less solemn occasion she would have felt more
embarrassed.
My host, with a muttered remark on the cold of our ride, and the
keen air of the Solway Sands, to which he did not seem to wish an
answer, loaded my plate from Mabel's grillade, which, with a
large wooden bowl of potatoes, formed our whole meal. A
sprinkling from the lemon gave a much higher zest than the usual
condiment of vinegar; and I promise you that whatever I might
hitherto have felt, either of curiosity or suspicion, did not
prevent me from making a most excellent supper, during which
little passed betwixt me and my entertainer, unless that he did
the usual honours of the table with courtesy, indeed, but without
even the affectation of hearty hospitality, which those in his
(apparent) condition generally affect on such occasions, even
when they do not actually feel it. On the contrary, his manner
seemed that of a polished landlord towards an unexpected and
unwelcome guest, whom, for the sake of his own credit, he
receives with civility, but without either goodwill or
cheerfulness.
If you ask how I learned all this, I cannot tell you; nor, were I
to write down at length the insignificant intercourse which took
place between us, would it perhaps serve to justify these
observations. It is sufficient to say, that in helping his dogs,
which he did from time to time with great liberality, he seemed
to discharge a duty much more pleasing to himself, than when he
paid the same attention to his guest. Upon the whole, the result
on my mind was as I tell it you.
'If,' he coldly replied, 'I meant the young woman whom I had seen
in the apartment, he bid me observe that there was room enough at
the table for her to have seated herself, and meat enough, such
as it was, for her supper. I might, therefore, be assured, if
she had chosen it, she would have supped with us.'
This left no opening for further explanation; nor was there room
for it on the usual terms of civility; for, as he neither asked
my name, nor expressed the least interest concerning my
condition, I--the obliged person--had no pretence to trouble him
with such inquiries on my part.
He took up the lamp, and led me through the side-door into a very
small room, where a bed had been hastily arranged for my
accommodation, and, putting down the lamp, directed me to leave
my wet clothes on the outside of the door, that they might be
exposed to the fire during the night. He then left me, having
muttered something which was meant to pass for good night.
Meantime I heard the storm, which had been brewing during the
evening, begin to descend with a vengeance; sounds as of distant-
thunder (the noise of the more distant waves, doubtless, on the
shore) mingled with the roaring of the neighbouring torrent, and
with the crashing, groaning, and even screaming of the trees in
the glen whose boughs were tormented by the gale. Within the
house, windows clattered, and doors clapped, and the walls,
though sufficiently substantial for a building of the kind,
seemed to me to totter in the tempest.
'You sleep sound--' said his full deep voice; 'ere five years
have rolled over your head, your slumbers will be lighter--unless
ere then you are wrapped in the sleep which is never broken.'
'I must first,' I said, 'take the freedom to spend a few minutes
alone, before beginning the ordinary works of the day.'
'Oh!--umph!--I cry your devotions pardon,' he replied, and left
the apartment.
He walked up and down while I partook of the bread and milk; and
the slow measured weighty step seemed identified with those which
I had heard last night. His pace, from its funereal slowness,
seemed to keep time with some current of internal passion, dark,
slow, and unchanged. 'We run and leap by the side of a lively
and bubbling brook,' thought I, internally, 'as if we would run a
race with it; but beside waters deep, slow, and lonely, our pace
is sullen and silent as their course. What thoughts may be now
corresponding with that furrowed brow, and bearing time with that
heavy step?'
What would I have given for a share of thy composure, who wouldst
have thrust half a crown into a man's hand whose necessities
seemed to crave it, conscious that you did right in making the
proffer, and not caring sixpence whether you hurt the feelings of
him whom you meant to serve! I saw thee once give a penny to a
man with a long beard, who, from the dignity of his exterior,
might have represented Solon. I had not thy courage, and
therefore I made no tender to my mysterious host, although,
notwithstanding his display of silver utensils, all around the
house bespoke narrow circumstances, if not actual poverty.
We left the place together. But I hear thee murmur thy very new
and appropriate ejaculation, OHE, JAM SATIS!--The rest for
another time. Perhaps I may delay further communication till I
learn how my favours are valued.
LETTER V
I have thy two last epistles, my dear Darsie, and expecting the
third, have been in no hurry to answer them. Do not think my
silence ought to be ascribed to my failing to take interest in
them, for, truly, they excel (though the task was difficult) thy
usual excellings. Since the moon-calf who earliest discovered
the Pandemonium of Milton in an expiring wood-fire--since the
first ingenious urchin who blew bubbles out of soap and water,
thou, my best of friends, hast the highest knack at making
histories out of nothing. Wert thou to plant the bean in the
nursery-tale, thou wouldst make out, so soon as it began to
germinate, that the castle of the giant was about to elevate its
battlements on the top of it. All that happens to thee gets a
touch of the wonderful and the sublime from thy own rich
imagination. Didst ever see what artists call a Claude Lorraine
glass, which spreads its own particular hue over the whole
landscape which you see through it?--thou beholdest ordinary
events just through such a medium.
I have looked carefully at the facts of thy last long letter, and
they are just such as might have befallen any little truant of
the High School, who had got down to Leith Sands, gone beyond the
PRAWN-DUB, wet his hose and shoon, and, finally, had been carried
home, in compassion, by some high-kilted fishwife, cursing all
the while the trouble which the brat occasioned her.
I admire the figure which thou must have made, clinging for dear
life behind the old fellow's back--thy jaws chattering with fear,
thy muscles cramped with anxiety. Thy execrable supper of
broiled salmon, which was enough to ensure the nightmare's
regular visits for a twelvemonth, may be termed a real
affliction; but as for the storm of Thursday last (such, I
observe, was the date), it roared, whistled, howled, and
bellowed, as fearfully amongst the old chimney-heads in the
Candlemaker Row, as it could on the Solway shore, for the very
wind of it--TESTE ME PER TOTAM NOCTEM VIGILANTE. And then in the
morning again, when--Lord help you--in your sentimental delicacy
you bid the poor man adieu, without even tendering him half a
crown for supper and lodging!
Imagine such a train at your own heels, Darsie, and ask yourself
whether you would not exert your legs as fast as you did in
flying from the Solway tide. And yet you impeach my father's
courage. I tell you he has courage enough to do what is right,
and to spurn what is wrong--courage enough to defend a righteous
cause with hand and purse, and to take the part of the poor man
against his oppressor, without fear of the consequences to
himself. This is civil courage, Darsie; and it is of little
consequence to most men in this age and country whether they ever
possess military courage or no.
As for the rest, if you can work mysterious and romantic heroes
out of old cross-grained fishermen, why, I for one will reap some
amusement by the metamorphosis. Yet hold! even there, there is
some need of caution. This same female chaplain--thou sayest so
little of her, and so much of every one else, that it excites
some doubt in my mind. VERY PRETTY she is, it seems--and that is
all thy discretion informs me of. There are cases in which
silence implies other things than consent. Wert thou ashamed or
afraid, Darsie, to trust thyself with the praises of the very
pretty grace-sayer?--As I live, thou blushest! Why, do I not
know thee an inveterate squire of dames? and have I not been in
thy confidence? An elegant elbow, displayed when the rest of the
figure was muffled in a cardinal, or a neat well-turned ankle and
instep, seen by chance as its owner tripped up the Old Assembly
Close, [Of old this almost deserted alley formed the most common
access betwixt the High Street and the southern suburbs.] turned
thy brain for eight days. Thou wert once caught if I remember
rightly, with a single glance of a single matchless eye, which,
when the fair owner withdrew her veil, proved to be single in the
literal sense of the word. And, besides, were you not another
time enamoured of a voice--a mere voice, that mingled in the
psalmody at the Old Greyfriars' Church--until you discovered the
proprietor of that dulcet organ to be Miss Dolly MacIzzard, who
is both 'back and breast', as our saying goes?
You will not expect much news from this quarter, as you know the
monotony of my life, and are aware it must at present be devoted
to uninterrupted study. You have said a thousand times that I am
only qualified to make my way by dint of plodding, and therefore
plod I must.
--
As I stood beside them, too much vexed at the childish part I was
made to play to derive much information from the valuable
arguments of Mr. Crossbite, I observed a rather elderly man, who
stood with his eyes firmly bent on my father, as if he only
waited an end of the business in which he was engaged, to address
him. There was something, I thought, in the gentleman's
appearance which commanded attention. Yet his dress was not in
the present taste, and though it had once been magnificent, was
now antiquated and unfashionable. His coat was of branched
velvet, with a satin lining, a waistcoat of violet-coloured silk,
much embroidered; his breeches the same stuff as the coat. He
wore square-toed shoes, with foretops, as they are called; and
his silk stockings were rolled up over his knee, as you may have
seen in pictures, and here and there on some of those originals
who seem to pique themselves on dressing after the mode of
Methuselah. A CHAPEAU BRAS and sword necessarily completed his
equipment, which, though out of date, showed that it belonged to
a man of distinction.
The instant Mr. Crossbite had ended what he had to say, this
gentleman walked up to my father, with, 'Your servant, Mr.
Fairford--it is long since you and I met.'
My father, however, again bowed low, and hoped he saw him well.
My father coloured, but would not seem to hear this. Much more
there was of careless and disrespectful in the stranger's manner
and tone of conversation; so that, though I know my father's
prejudices in favour of rank and birth, and though I am aware his
otherwise masculine understanding has never entirely shaken off
the slavish awe of the great which in his earlier days they had
so many modes of commanding, still I could hardly excuse him for
enduring so much insolence--such it seemed to be as this self-
invited guest was disposed to offer to him at his own table.
I did so, and if you have heard from my father accordingly, you
know more, probably, about the subject of this letter than I who
write it. But if you have not, then shall I have discharged a
friend's duty, in letting you know that there certainly is
something afloat between this disagreeable laird and my father,
in which you are considerably interested.
LETTER VI
I told thee I walked out into the open air with my grave and
stern landlord. I could now see more perfectly than on the
preceding night the secluded glen in which stood the two or three
cottages which appeared to be the abode of him and his family.
My conductor had extended his arm, and was pointing the road to
Shepherd's Bush, when the step of a horse was heard approaching
us. He looked sharply round, and having observed who was
approaching, proceeded in his instructions to me, planting
himself at the same time in the very middle of the path, which,
at the place where we halted, had a slough on the one side and a
sandbank on the other.
'I will change no more words with you on the subject,' said the
fisherman, who, as if something moved at the last argument which
Mr. Geddes had used, now made room for him to pass forward on his
journey. 'Do not forget, however,' he added, 'that you have had
fair warning, nor suppose that we will accept of fair words in
apology for foul play. These nets of yours are unlawful--they
spoil our fishings--we will have them down at all risks and
hazards. I am a man of my word, friend Joshua.'
'I trust thou art,' said the Quaker; 'but thou art the rather
bound to be cautious in rashly affirming what thou wilt never
execute. For I tell thee, friend, that though there is as great
a difference between thee and one of our people as there is
between a lion and a sheep, yet I know and believe thou hast so
much of the lion in thee, that thou wouldst scarce employ thy
strength and thy rage upon that which professeth no means of
resistance. Report says so much good of thee, at least, if it
says little more.'
'Time will try,' answered the fisherman; 'and hark thee, Joshua,
before we part I will put thee in the way of doing one good deed,
which, credit me, is better than twenty moral speeches. Here is
a stranger youth, whom Heaven has so scantily gifted with brains,
that he will bewilder himself in the Sands, as he did last night,
unless thou wilt kindly show him the way to Shepherd's Bush; for
I have been in vain endeavouring to make him comprehend the road
thither. Hast thou so much charity under thy simplicity, Quaker,
as to do this good turn?'
'Perhaps if you reside here for some days,' he said, 'we may meet
again, and I may have the chance of giving you a lesson.'
Meanwhile the Quaker and I proceeded on our journey for some time
in silence; he restraining his sober-minded steed to a pace which
might have suited a much less active walker than myself, and
looking on me from time to time with an expression of curiosity,
mingled with benignity. For my part, I cared not to speak first.
It happened I had never before been in company with one of this
particular sect, and, afraid that in addressing him I might
unwittingly infringe upon some of their prejudices or
peculiarities, I patiently remained silent. At length he asked
me, whether I had been long in the service of the laird, as men
called him.
'Be not angry with me,' said the Quaker; 'but thou knowest that
thine own people do not, as we humbly endeavour to do, confine
themselves within the simplicity of truth, but employ the
language of falsehood, not only for profit, but for compliment,
and sometimes for mere diversion. I have heard various stories
of my neighbour; of most of which I only believe a small part,
and even then they are difficult to reconcile with each other.
But this being the first time I ever beard of his receiving a
stranger within his dwelling, made me express some doubts. I
pray thee let them not offend thee.'
'I accept the invitation, then,' said I, 'in the same good spirit
in which you give it.'
'I do thee no harm, young man,' said my new friend, 'in wishing
thee a better employment for thy grave hours, and a more humane
amusement (if amusement thou must have) for those of a lighter
character.'
'You are severe, sir,' I replied. 'I heard you but a moment
since refer yourself to the protection of the laws of the
country--if there be laws, there must be lawyers to explain, and
judges to administer them.'
Joshua smiled, and pointed to the sheep which were grazing on the
downs over which we were travelling. 'Were a wolf,' he said, 'to
come even now upon yonder flocks, they would crowd for
protection, doubtless, around the shepherd and his dogs; yet they
are bitten and harassed daily by the one, shorn, and finally
killed and eaten by the other. But I say not this to shock you;
for, though laws and lawyers are evils, yet they are necessary
evils in this probationary state of society, till man shall learn
to render unto his fellows that which is their due, according to
the light of his own conscience, and through no other compulsion.
Meanwhile, I have known many righteous men who have followed thy
intended profession in honesty and uprightness of walk. The
greater their merit, who walk erect in a path which so many find
slippery.
Joshua shook his head, for he was well acquainted with Benjie,
who, he said, was the naughtiest varlet in the whole
neighbourhood. Nevertheless, rather than part company, he agreed
to put the pony under his charge for a short season, with many
injunctions that he should not attempt to mount, but lead the
pony (even Solomon) by the bridle, under the assurances of
sixpence in case of proper demeanour, and penalty that if he
transgressed the orders given him, 'verily he would be scourged.'
LETTER VII
Little Benjie, with the pony, having been sent off on the left
side of the brook, the Quaker and I sauntered on, like the
cavalry and infantry of the same army occupying the opposite
banks of a river, and observing the same line of march. But,
while my worthy companion was assuring me of a pleasant
greensward walk to his mansion, little Benjie, who had been
charged to keep in sight, chose to deviate from the path assigned
him, and, turning to the right, led his charge, Solomon, out of
our vision.
Here a contest of opinions took place between the horse and his
rider. The latter, according to his instructions, attempted to
direct Solomon towards the distant bridge of stone; but Solomon
opined that the ford was the shortest way to his own stable. The
point was sharply contested, and we heard Benjie gee-hupping,
tchek-tcheking, and, above all, flogging in great style; while
Solomon, who, docile in his general habits, was now stirred
beyond his patience, made a great trampling and recalcitration;
and it was their joint noise which we heard, without being able
to see, though Joshua might too well guess, the cause of it.
But Joshua was not without his answer; 'Friend youth,' he said,
'thou didst speak of the lad's soul, which thou didst affirm
belonged to the enemy, and of that thou couldst say nothing of
thine own knowledge; on the contrary, I did but speak of his
outward man, which will assuredly be suspended by a cord, if he
mendeth not his manners. Men say that, young as he is, he is one
of the laird's gang.'
'But I must not let thee forget,' said the kind Quaker, 'amidst
thy admiration of these beauties of our little inheritance, that
thy breakfast has been a light one.'
The parlour would have been gloomy, for the windows were small
and the ceiling low; but the present proprietor had rendered it
more cheerful by opening one end into a small conservatory,
roofed with glass, and divided from the parlour by a partition of
the same. I have never before seen this very pleasing manner of
uniting the comforts of an apartment with the beauties of a
garden, and I wonder it is not more practised by the great.
Something of the kind is hinted at in a paper of the SPECTATOR.
'It should be 1537,' said he; 'for so long ago, at the least
computation, did my ancestors, in the blinded times of Papistry,
possess these lands, and in that year did they build their
house.'
A Quaker servant here entered the room with a tray, and inclining
his head towards his master, but not after the manner of one who
bows, said composedly, 'Thou art welcome home, friend Joshua, we
expected thee not so early; but what hath befallen Solomon thy
horse?'
'Not so' answered the servant, 'for he rose and fled swiftly.'
The lad who was leading the horse seemed to be no Quaker, though
his intercourse with the family had given him a touch of their
prim sobriety of look and manner. He assured Joshua that his
horse had received no injury, and I even hinted that the exercise
would be of service to him. Solomon himself neighed towards his
master, and rubbed his head against the good Quaker's shoulder,
as if to assure him of his being quite well; so that Joshua
returned in comfort to his parlour, where breakfast was now about
to be displayed.
I have since learned that the affection of Joshua for his pony is
considered as inordinate by some of his own sect; and that he has
been much blamed for permitting it to be called by the name of
Solomon, or any other name whatever; but he has gained so much
respect and influence among them that they overlook these
foibles.
This Philip Geddes, as I before hinted, had imbibed the taste for
horticulture and the pursuits of the florist, which are not
uncommon among the peaceful sect he belonged to. He had
destroyed the remnants of the old peel-house, substituting the
modern mansion in its place; and while he reserved the hearth of
his ancestors, in memory of their hospitality, as also the, pious
motto which they had chanced to assume, he failed not to
obliterate the worldly and military emblems displayed upon the
shield and helmet, together with all their blazonry.
These good folks, Alan, make no allowance for what your good
father calls the Aberdeen-man's privilege, of 'taking his word
again;' or what the wise call second thoughts.
'This young man, Rachel, hath last night sojourned in the tents
of our neighbour whom men call the laird. I am sorry I had not
met him the evening before, for our neighbour's hospitality is
too unfrequently exercised to be well prepared with the means of
welcome.'
'Nay, but, Joshua,' said Rachel, 'if our neighbour hath done a
kindness, thou shouldst not grudge him the opportunity; and if
our young friend hath fared ill for a night, he will the better
relish what Providence may send him of better provisions.'
'It was painful,' she said, 'but it was according to the law of
their being. They must die; but they knew not when death was
approaching; and in making them comfortable while they lived, we
contributed to their happiness as much as the conditions of their
existence permitted to us.'
I will not trouble you with any account of the various hot-houses
and gardens, and their contents. No small sum of money must have
been expended in erecting and maintaining them in the exquisite
degree of good order which they exhibited. The family, I
understood, were connected with that of the celebrated Millar,
and had imbibed his taste for flowers, and for horticulture. But
instead of murdering botanical names, I will rather conduct you
to the POLICY, or pleasure-garden, which the taste of Joshua or
his father had extended on the banks betwixt the house and river.
This also, in contradistinction to the prevailing simplicity, was
ornamented in an unusual degree. There were various
compartments, the connexion of which was well managed, and
although the whole ground did not exceed five or six acres, it
was so much varied as to seem four times larger. The space
contained close alleys and open walks; a very pretty artificial
waterfall; a fountain also, consisting of a considerable jet-
d'eau, whose streams glittered in the sunbeams and exhibited a
continual rainbow. There was a cabinet of verdure, as the French
call it, to cool the summer heat, and there was a terrace
sheltered from the north-east by a noble holly hedge, with all
its glittering spears where you might have the full advantage of
the sun in the clear frosty days of winter.
I know that you, Alan, will condemn all this as bad and
antiquated; for, ever since Dodsley has described the Leasowes,
and talked of Brown's imitations of nature and Horace Walpole's
late Essay on Gardening, you are all for simple nature--condemn
walking up and down stairs in the open air and declare for wood
and wilderness. But NE QUID NIMIS. I would not deface a scene
of natural grandeur or beauty, by the introduction of crowded
artificial decorations; yet such may, I think, be very
interesting, where the situation, in its natural state, otherwise
has no particular charms.
So that when I have a country-house (who can say how soon?) you
may look for grottoes, and cascades, and fountains; nay if you
vex me by contradiction, perhaps I may go the length of a temple
--so provoke me not, for you see of what enormities I am capable.
'It is true,' she replied; 'yet such persons may understand that
their being connived at depends on their living in obscurity.
But indeed there can nothing certain be known among these rude
people. The truth is not in them--most of them participate in
the unlawful trade betwixt these parts and the neighbouring shore
of England; and they are familiar with every species of falsehood
and deceit.'
'Thou speakest, friend Latimer,' answered the lady, 'as one who
is still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. God
forbid that we should endeavour to preserve nets of flax and
stakes of wood, or the Mammon of gain which they procure for us,
by the hands of men of war and at the risk of spilling human
blood.'
'I respect your scruples,' I replied; 'but since such is your way
of thinking, your brother ought to avert the danger by compromise
or submission.'
As she spoke, she opened a low door, leading through a moss and
ivy-covered wall, the boundary of the pleasure-ground, into the
open fields; through which we moved by a convenient path,
leading, with good taste and simplicity, by stile and hedgerow,
through pasturage, and arable, and woodland; so that in all
ordinary weather, the good man might, without even soiling his
shoes, perform his perambulation round the farm. There were
seats also, on which to rest; and though not adorned with
inscriptions, nor quite so frequent in occurrence as those
mentioned in the account of the Leasowes, their situation was
always chosen with respect to some distant prospect to be
commanded, or some home-view to be enjoyed.
But what struck me most in Joshua's domain was the quantity and
the tameness of the game. The hen partridge scarce abandoned the
roost, at the foot of the hedge where she had assembled her
covey, though the path went close beside her; and the hare,
remaining on her form, gazed at us as we passed, with her full
dark eye, or rising lazily and hopping to a little distance,
stood erect to look at us with more curiosity than apprehension.
I observed to Miss Geddes the extreme tameness of these timid and
shy animals, and she informed me that their confidence arose from
protection in the summer, and relief during the winter.
'They are pets,' she said, 'of my brother, who considers them as
the better entitled to his kindness that they are a race
persecuted by the world in general. He denieth himself,' she
said, 'even the company of a dog, that these creatures may here
at least enjoy undisturbed security. Yet this harmless or humane
propensity, or humour, hath given offence,' she added, 'to our
dangerous neighbours.'
Sam, still more drunk than sober, arrived in due time with my
portmanteau, and enabled me to put my dress into order, better
befitting this temple of cleanliness and decorum, where (to
conclude) I believe I shall be a sojourner more days than one.
[See Note 1.]
Thou mayst clap thy wings and crow as thou pleasest. You go in
search of adventures, but adventures come to me unsought for; and
oh! in what a pleasing shape came mine, since it arrived in the
form of a client--and a fair client to boot! What think you of
that, Darsie! you who are such a sworn squire of dames? Will
this not match my adventures with thine, that hunt salmon on
horseback, and will it not, besides, eclipse the history of a
whole tribe of Broadbrims?--But I must proceed methodically.
'The devil may be in the matter, for aught I ken,' said James,
with another provoking grin; 'for here has been a woman calling
for you, Maister Alan.'
'A woman calling for me?' said I in surprise; for you know well,
that excepting old Aunt Peggy, who comes to dinner of a Sunday,
and the still older Lady Bedrooket, who calls ten times a year
for the quarterly payment of her jointure of four hundred merks,
a female scarce approaches our threshold, as my father visits all
his female clients at their own lodgings. James protested,
however, that there had been a lady calling, and for me. 'As
bonny a lass as I have seen,' added James, 'since I was in the
Fusileers, and kept company with Peg Baxter.' Thou knowest all
James's gay recollections go back to the period of his military
service, the years he has spent in ours having probably been dull
enough.
'No,' replied James; 'but she asked when you wad be at hame, and
I appointed her for twelve o'clock, when the house wad be quiet,
and your father at the Bank.'
'For shame, James! how can you think my father's being at home
or abroad could be of consequence?--The lady is of course a
decent person?'
The devil take that hood, Darsie! for I was just able to
distinguish that, pulled as it was over the face, it concealed
from me, as I was convinced, one of the prettiest countenances I
have seen, and which, from a sense of embarrassment, seemed to be
crimsoned with a deep blush. I could see her complexion was
beautiful--her chin finely turned--her lips coral--and her teeth
rivals to ivory. But further the deponent sayeth not; for a
clasp of gold, ornamented with it sapphire, closed the envious
mantle under the incognita's throat, and the cursed hood
concealed entirely the upper part of the face.
'You are very obliging, sir,' A pause, during which she seemed
undetermined whether to rise or sit still.
The lady arose. 'I am truly sensible of your kindness, sir; and
I have no doubt of your talents. I will be very plain with you--
it is you whom I came to visit; although, now that we have met, I
find it will be much better that I should commit my communication
to writing.'
At length--as common sense will get the better in all cases when
a man will but give it fair play--I began to stand convicted in
my own mind, as an ass before the interview, for having expected
too much--an ass during the interview, for having failed to
extract the lady's real purpose--and an especial ass, now that it
was over, for thinking so much about it. But I can think of
nothing else, and therefore I am determined to think of this to
some good purpose.
--Four o'clock.
Plague on her green mantle, she can be nothing better than a
fairy; she keeps possession of my head yet! All during dinner-
time I was terribly absent; but, luckily, my father gave the
whole credit of my reverie to the abstract nature of the
doctrine, VINCO VINCENTEM, ERGO VINCO TE; upon which brocard of
law the professor this morning lectured. So I got an early
dismissal to my own crib, and here am I studying, in one sense,
VINCERE VINCENTEM, to get the better of the silly passion of
curiosity--I think--I think it amounts to nothing else--which has
taken such possession of my imagination, and is perpetually
worrying me with the question--will she write or no? She will
not--she will not! So says Reason, and adds, Why should she take
the trouble to enter into correspondence with one who, instead of
a bold, alert, prompt gallant, proved a chicken-hearted boy, and
left her the whole awkwardness of explanation, which he should
have met half-way? But then, says Fancy, she WILL write, for she
was not a bit that sort of person whom you, Mr. Reason, in your
wisdom, take her to be. She was disconcerted enough, without my
adding to her distress by any impudent conduct on my part. And
she will write, for--By Heaven, she HAS written, Darsie, and with
a vengeance! Here is her letter, thrown into the kitchen by a
caddie, too faithful to be bribed, either by money or whisky, to
say more than that he received it, with sixpence, from an
ordinary-looking woman, as he was plying on his station near the
Cross.
'SIR,
'Excuse my mistake of to-day. I had accidentally learnt that Mr.
Darsie Latimer had an intimate friend and associate in Mr. A.
Fairford. When I inquired for such a person, he was pointed out
to me at the Cross (as I think the Exchange of your city is
called) in the character of a respectable elderly man--your
father, as I now understand. On inquiry at Brown's Square, where
I understood he resided, I used the full name of Alan, which
naturally occasioned you the trouble of this day's visit. Upon
further inquiry, I am led to believe that you are likely to be
the person most active in the matter to which I am now about to
direct your attention; and I regret much that circumstances,
arising out of my own particular situation, prevent my
communicating to you personally what I now apprise you of in this
matter.
A bank-note of L20 was the enclosure, and the whole incident left
me speechless with astonishment. I am not able to read over the
beginning of my own letter, which forms the introduction to this
extraordinary communication. I only know that, though mixed with
a quantity of foolery (God knows very much different from my
present feelings), it gives an account sufficiently accurate, of
the mysterious person from whom this letter comes, and that I
have neither time nor patience to separate the absurd commentary
from the text, which it is so necessary you should know.
LETTER IX
To call a new cause--I have the pleasure to tell you, that Alan
has passed his private Scots Law examinations with good
approbation--a great relief to my mind; especially as worthy Mr.
Pest told me in my ear there was no fear of 'the callant', as he
familiarly called him, which gives me great heart. His public
trials, which are nothing in comparison save a mere form, are to
take place, by order of the Honourable Dean of Faculty, on
Wednesday first; and on Friday he puts on the gown, and gives a
bit chack of dinner to his friends and acquaintances, as is, you
know, the custom. Your company will be wished for there, Master
Darsie, by more than him, which I regret to think is impossible
to have, as well by your engagements, as that our cousin, Peter
Fairford, comes from the West on purpose, and we have no place to
offer him but your chamber in the wall. And, to be plain with
you, after my use and wont, Master Darsie, it may be as well that
Alan and you do not meet till he is hefted as it were to his new
calling. You are a pleasant gentleman, and full of daffing,
which may well become you, as you have enough (as I understand)
to uphold your merry humour. If you regard the matter wisely,
you would perchance consider that a man of substance should have
a douce and staid demeanour; yet you are so far from growing
grave and considerate with the increase of your annual income,
that the richer you become, the merrier I think you grow. But
this must be at your own pleasure, so far as you are concerned.
Alan, however (overpassing my small savings), has the world to
win; and louping and laughing, as you and he were wont to do,
would soon make the powder flee out of his wig, and the pence out
of his pocket. Nevertheless, I trust you will meet when you
return from your rambles; for there is a time, as the wise man
sayeth, for gathering, and a time for casting away; it is always
the part of a man of sense to take the gathering time first. I
remain, dear sir, your well-wishing friend; and obedient to
command,
ALEXANDER FAIRFORD.
The plot thickens, Alan. I have your letter, and also one from
your father. The last makes it impossible for me to comply with
the kind request which the former urges. No--I cannot be with
you, Alan; and that, for the best of all reasons--I cannot and
ought not to counteract your father's anxious wishes. I do not
take it unkind of him that he desires my absence. It is natural
that he should wish for his son what his son so well deserves--
the advantage of a wiser and steadier companion than I seem to
him. And yet I am sure I have often laboured hard enough to
acquire that decency of demeanour which can no more be suspected
of breaking bounds, than an owl of catching a butterfly.
But it was in vain that I have knitted my brows till I had the
headache, in order to acquire the reputation of a grave, solid,
and well-judging youth. Your father always has discovered, or
thought that he discovered, a hare-brained eccentricity lying
folded among the wrinkles of my forehead, which rendered me a
perilous associate for the future counsellor and ultimate judge.
Well, Corporal Nym's philosophy must be my comfort--'Things must
be as they may.'--I cannot come to your father's house, where he
wishes not to see me; and as to your coming hither,--by all that
is dear to me, I vow that if you are guilty of such a piece of
reckless folly--not to say undutiful cruelty, considering your
father's thoughts and wishes--I will never speak to you again as
long as I live! I am perfectly serious. And besides, your
father, while he in a manner prohibits me from returning to
Edinburgh, gives me the strongest reasons for continuing a little
while longer in this country, by holding out the hope that I may
receive from your old friend, Mr. Herries of Birrenswork, some
particulars concerning my origin, with which that ancient
recusant seems to be acquainted.
As for the Lady of the Mantle, I will lay a wager that the sun so
bedazzled thine eyes on that memorable morning, that everything
thou didst look upon seemed green; and notwithstanding James
Wilkinson's experience in the Fusileers, as well as his negative
whistle, I will venture to hold a crown that she is but a what-
shall-call-'um after all. Let not even the gold persuade you to
the contrary. She may make a shift to cause you to disgorge
that, and (immense spoil!) a session's fees to boot, if you look
not all the sharper about you. Or if it should be otherwise, and
if indeed there lurk some mystery under this visitation, credit
me, it is one which thou canst not penetrate, nor can I as yet
even attempt to explain it; since, if I prove mistaken, and
mistaken I may easily be, I would be fain to creep into
Phalaris's bull, were it standing before me ready heated, rather
than be roasted with thy raillery. Do not tax me with want of
confidence; for the instant I can throw any light on the matter
thou shalt have it; but while I am only blundering about in the
dark, I do not choose to call wise folks to see me, perchance,
break my nose against a post. So if you marvel at this,
The voices, as they mixed in their several parts, and ran through
them, untwisting and again entwining all the links of the merry
old catch, seemed to have a little touch of the bacchanalian
spirit which they celebrated, and showed plainly that the
musicians were engaged in the same joyous revel as the MENYIE of
old Sir Thom o' Lyne. At length I came within sight of them,
three in number, where they sat cosily niched into what you might
call a BUNKER, a little sand-pit, dry and snug, and surrounded by
its banks, and a screen of whins in full bloom.
There was no mistaking the profession of the male and female, who
were partners with Benjie in these merry doings. The man's long
loose-bodied greatcoat (wrap-rascal as the vulgar term it), the
fiddle-case, with its straps, which lay beside him, and a small
knapsack which might contain his few necessaries; a clear grey
eye; features which, in contending with many a storm, had not
lost a wild and, careless expression of glee, animated at
present, when he was exercising for his own pleasure the arts
which he usually practised for bread,--all announced one of those
peripatetic followers of Orpheus whom the vulgar call a
strolling fiddler. Gazing more attentively, I easily discovered
that though the poor musician's eyes were open, their sense was
shut, and that the ecstasy with which he turned them up to heaven
only derived its apparent expression from his own internal
emotions, but received no assistance from the visible objects
around. Beside him sat his female companion, in a man's hat, a
blue coat, which seemed also to have been an article of male
apparel, and a red petticoat. She was cleaner, in person and in
clothes, than such itinerants generally are; and, having been in
her day a strapping BONA ROBA, she did not even yet neglect some
attention to her appearance; wore a large amber necklace, and
silver ear-rings, and had her laid fastened across her breast
with a brooch of the same metal.
The woman rose and curtsied; and Wandering Willie sanctioned his
own praises with a nod, and the ejaculation, 'All is true that
the little boy says.'
'A rant, man--an auld rant,' said Willie; 'naething like the
music ye hae in your ballhouses and your playhouses in Edinbro';
but it's weel aneugh anes in a way at a dykeside. Here's another
--it's no a Scotch tune, but it passes for ane--Oswald made it
himsell, I reckon--he has cheated mony ane, but he canna cheat
Wandering Willie,'
'I dinna ken whether I dare trust Robin's fiddle to ye,' said
Willie, bluntly. His wife gave him a twitch. 'Hout awa,
Maggie,' he said in contempt of the hint; 'though the gentleman
may hae gien ye siller, he may have nae bowhand for a' that, and
I'll no trust Robin's fiddle wi' an ignoramus. But that's no sae
muckle amiss,' he added, as I began to touch the instrument; 'I
am thinking ye have some skill o' the craft.'
'The deevil I maunna!' said Willie; 'and what for maunna I?--If
he was ten gentles, he canna draw a bow like me, can he?'
But Maggie, whom the offer of the crown had not escaped, began to
open on that scent with a maundering sort of lecture. 'Oh
Willie! hinny Willie, whan will ye learn to be wise? There's a
crown to be win for naething but saying ae man's name instead of
anither. And, wae's me! I hae just a shilling of this
gentleman's gieing, and a boddle of my ain; and ye wunna, bend
your will sae muckle as to take up the siller that's flung at
your feet! Ye will die the death of a cadger's powney, in a
wreath of drift! and what can I do better than lie doun and die
wi' you? for ye winna let me win siller to keep either you or
mysell leevin.'
'And what for should ye?' said her lord and master; 'to dance a'
night, I'se warrant, and no to be fit to walk your tae's-length
the morn, and we have ten Scots miles afore us? Na, na. Stable
the steed, and pit your wife to bed, when there's night wark to
do.'
'Aweel, aweel, Willie hinnie, ye ken best; but oh, take an unco
care o' yoursell, and mind ye haena the blessing o' sight.'
Then, stoutly striding over the lea, you have a full view of
Darsie Latimer, with his new acquaintance, Wandering Willie, who,
bating that he touched the ground now and then with his staff,
not in a doubtful groping manner, but with the confident air of
an experienced pilot, heaving the lead when he has the soundings
by heart, walks as firmly and boldly as if he possessed the eyes
of Argus. There they go, each with his violin slung at his back,
but one of them at least totally ignorant whither their course is
directed.
And wherefore did you enter so keenly into such a mad frolic?
says my wise counsellor.--Why, I think, upon the whole, that as a
sense of loneliness, and a longing for that kindness which is
interchanged in society, led me to take up my temporary residence
at Mount Sharon, the monotony of my life there, the quiet
simplicity of the conversation of the Geddeses, and the
uniformity of their amusements and employments, wearied out my
impatient temper, and prepared me for the first escapade which
chance might throw in my way.
What would I have given that I could have procured that solemn
grave visage of thine, to dignify this joke, as it has done full
many a one of thine own! Thou hast so happy a knack of doing the
most foolish things in the wisest manner, that thou mightst pass
thy extravagances for rational actions, even in the eyes of
Prudence herself.
I told him my name, with the same addition I had formerly given
to Mr. Joshua Geddes; that I was a law-student, tired of my
studies, and rambling about for exercise and amusement.
'And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' a' the gangrel bodies
that ye meet on the high-road, or find cowering in a sand-bunker
upon the links?' demanded Willie.
'Oh, no; only with honest folks like yourself, Willie,' was my
reply.
There was something odd in this speech, and the tone in which it
was said. It seemed as if my companion was not always in his
constant mind, or that he was willing to try if he could frighten
me. I laughed at the extravagance of his language, however, and
asked him in reply, if he was fool enough to believe that the
foul fiend would play so silly a masquerade.
'Ye ken little about it--little about it,' said the old man,
shaking his head and beard, and knitting his brows, 'I could tell
ye something about that.'
'It is very true,' said the blind man, 'that when I am tired of
scraping thairm or singing ballants, I whiles mak a tale serve
the turn among the country bodies; and I have some fearsome anes,
that make the auld carlines shake on the settle, and the bits o'
bairns skirl on their minnies out frae their beds. But this that
I am gaun to tell you was a thing that befell in our ain house in
my father's time--that is, my father was then a hafflins callant;
and I tell it to you that it may be a lesson to you, that are but
a young, thoughtless chap, wha ye draw up wi' on a lonely road;
for muckle was the dool and care that came o't to my gudesire.'
Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared. Men thought he had
a direct compact with Satan--that he was proof against steel--and
that bullets happed aff his buff-coat like hailstanes from a
hearth--that he had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of
Carrifra-gawns [A precipitous side of a mountain in Moffatdale.]
--and muckle to the same purpose, of whilk mair anon. The best
blessing they wared on him was, 'Deil scowp wi' Redgauntlet!' He
wasna a bad master to his ain folk, though, and was weel aneugh
liked by his tenants; and as for the lackies and troopers that
raid out wi' him to the persecutions, as the Whigs caa'd those
killing times, they wad hae drunken themsells blind to his health
at ony time.
Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a'
the folks about the castle, and was often sent for to play the
pipes when they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum,
the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill,
thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes,
and ay gae my gudesire his gude word wi' the laird; for Dougal
could turn his master round his finger.
Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken
the hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was
not a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought
for. The Whigs made an unco crawing what they wad do with their
auld enemies, and in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet. But
there were ower mony great folks dipped in the same doings, to
mak a spick and span new warld. So Parliament passed it a' ower
easy; and Sir Robert, bating that he was held to hunting foxes
instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he was. [The
caution and moderation of King William III, and his principles of
unlimited toleration, deprived the Cameronians of the opportunity
they ardently desired, to retaliate the injuries which they had
received during the reign of prelacy, and purify the land, as
they called it, from the pollution of blood. They esteemed the
Revolution, therefore, only a half measure, which neither
comprehended the rebuilding the Kirk in its full splendour, nor
the revenge of the death of the Saints on their persecutors.]
His revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it
had been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists,
that used to come to stock his larder and cellar; for it is
certain he began to be keener about the rents than his tenants
used to find him before, and they behoved to be prompt to the
rent-day, or else the laird wasna pleased. And he was sic an
awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him; for the oaths he
swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the looks that
he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate.
Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armed chair,
wi' his grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had
baith gout and gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as
Satan's. Major Weir sat opposite to him, in a red laced coat,
and the laird's wig on his head; and ay as Sir Robert girned wi'
pain, the jackanape girned too, like a sheep's-head between a
pair of tangs--an ill-faur'd, fearsome couple they were. The
laird's buff-coat was hung on a pin behind him, and his
broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the
auld fashion of having the weapons ready, and a horse saddled day
and night, just as he used to do when he was able to loup on
horseback, and away after ony of the hill-folk he could get
speerings of. Some said it was for fear of the Whigs taking
vengeance, but I judge it was just his auld custom--he wasna,
gien to fear onything. The rental-book, wi' its black cover and
brass clasps, was lying beside him; and a book of sculduddry
sangs was put betwixt the leaves, to keep it open at the place
where it bore evidence against the Goodman of Primrose Knowe, as
behind the hand with his mails and duties. Sir Robert gave my
gudesire a look, as if he would have withered his heart in his
bosom. Ye maun ken he had a way of bending his brows, that men
saw the visible mark of a horseshoe in his forehead, deep dinted,
as if it had been stamped there.
'Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?' said Sir
Robert. 'Zounds! if you are'--
But they werena weel out of the room, when Sir Robert gied a
yelloch that garr'd the castle rock. Back ran Dougal--in flew
the livery-men--yell on yell gied the laird, ilk ane mair awfu'
than the ither. My gudesire knew not whether to stand or flee,
but he ventured back into the parlour, where a' was gaun hirdy-
girdie--naebody to say 'come in,' or 'gae out.' Terribly the
laird roared for cauld water to his feet, and wine to cool his
throat; and Hell, hell, hell, and its flames, was ay the word in
his mouth. They brought him water, and when they plunged his
swollen feet into the tub, he cried out it was burning; and folk
say that it DID bubble and sparkle like a seething cauldron. He
flung the cup at Dougal's head, and said he had given him blood
instead of burgundy; and, sure aneugh, the lass washed clotted
blood aff the carpet; the neist day. The jackanape they caa'd
Major Weir, it jibbered and cried as if it was mocking its
master; my gudesire's head was like to turn--he forgot baith
siller and receipt, and downstairs he banged; but as he ran, the
shrieks came faint and fainter; there was a deep-drawn shivering
groan, and word gaed through the castle that the laird was dead.
Weel, away came my gudesire, wi' his finger in his mouth, and his
best hope was that Dougal had seen the money-bag, and heard the
laird speak of writing the receipt. The young laird, now Sir
John, came from Edinburgh, to see things put to rights. Sir John
and his father never gree'd weel. Sir John had been bred an
advocate, and afterwards sat in the last Scots Parliament and
voted for the Union, having gotten, it was thought, a rug of the
compensations--if his father could have come out of his grave, he
would have brained him for it on his awn hearthstane. Some
thought it was easier counting with the auld rough knight than
the fair-spoken young ane--but mair of that anon.
Dougal MacCallum, poor body, neither grat nor grained, but gaed
about the house looking like a corpse, but directing, as was his
duty, a' the order of the grand funeral. Now Dougal looked ay
waur and waur when night was coming, and was ay the last to gang
to his bed, whilk was in a little round just opposite the chamber
of dais, whilk his master occupied while he was living, and where
he now lay in state, as they caa'd it, weel-a-day! The night
before the funeral, Dougal could keep his awn counsel nae langer;
he came doun with his proud spirit, and fairly asked auld
Hutcheon to sit in his room with him for an hour. When they were
in the round, Dougal took ae tass of brandy to himsell, and gave
another to Hutcheon, and wished him all health and lang life, and
said that, for himsell, he wasna lang for this world; for that,
every night since Sir Robert's death, his silver call had sounded
from the state chamber, just as it used to do at nights in his
lifetime, to call Dougal to help to turn him in his bed. Dougal
said that being alone with the dead on that floor of the tower
(for naebody cared to wake Sir Robert Redgauntlet like another
corpse) he had never daured to answer the call, but that now his
conscience checked him for neglecting his duty; for, 'though
death breaks service,' said MacCallum, 'it shall never break my
service to Sir Robert; and I will answer his next whistle, so be
you will stand by me, Hutcheon.'
Hutcheon had nae will to the wark, but he had stood by Dougal in
battle and broil, and he wad not fail him at this pinch; so down
the carles sat ower a stoup of brandy, and Hutcheon, who was
something of a clerk, would have read a chapter of the Bible; but
Dougal would hear naething but a blaud of Davie Lindsay, whilk
was the waur preparation.
When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the grave, sure
enough the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir
Robert was blowing it, and up got the twa auld serving-men, and
tottered into the room where the dead man lay. Hutcheon saw
aneugh at the first glance; for there were torches in the room,
which showed him the foul fiend, in his ain shape, sitting on the
laird's coffin! Ower he cowped as if he had been dead. He could
not tell how lang he lay in a trance at the door, but when he
gathered himself, he cried on his neighbour, and getting nae
answer, raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead within
twa steps of the bed where his master's coffin was placed. As
for the whistle, it was gaen anes and ay; but mony a time was it
heard at the top of the house on the bartizan, and amang the auld
chimneys and turrets where the howlets have their nests. Sir
John hushed the matter up, and the funeral passed over without
mair bogle-wark.
But when a' was ower, and the laird was beginning to settle his
affairs, every tenant was called up for his arrears, and my
gudesire for the full sum that stood against him in the rental-
book. Weel, away he trots to the castle, to tell his story, and
there he is introduced to Sir John, sitting in his father's
chair, in deep mourning, with weepers and hanging cravat, and a
small wallring rapier by his side, instead of the auld broadsword
that had a hundredweight of steel about it, what with blade,
chape, and basket-hilt. I have heard their communing so often
tauld ower, that I almost think I was there mysell, though I
couldna be born at the time. (In fact, Alan, my companion
mimicked, with a good deal of humour, the flattering,
conciliating tone of the tenant's address, and the hypocritical
melancholy of the laird's reply. His grandfather, he said, had,
while he spoke, his eye fixed on the rental-book, as if it were a
mastiff-dog that he was afraid would spring up and bite him).
'I wuss ye joy, sir, of the head seat, and the white loaf, and
the braid lairdship. Your father was a kind man to friends and
followers; muckle grace to you, Sir John, to fill his shoon--his
boots, I suld say, for he seldom wore shoon, unless it were muils
when he had the gout.'
'Aye, Steenie,' quoth the laird, sighing deeply, and putting his
napkin to his een, 'his was a sudden call, and he will be missed
in the country; no time to set his house in order--weel prepared
Godward, no doubt, which is the root of the matter--but left us
behind a tangled heap to wind, Steenie.--Hem! hem! We maun go
to business, Steenie; much to do, and little time to do it in.'
'Stephen,' said Sir John, still in the same soft, sleekit tone of
voice--'Stephen Stevenson, or Steenson, ye are down here for a
year's rent behind the hand--due at last term.'
SIR JOHN. 'Ye took a receipt, then, doubtless, Stephen; and can
produce it?'
'That was unlucky,' said Sir John, after a pause. 'But ye maybe
paid it in the presence of somebody, I want but a TALIS QUALIS
evidence, Stephen. I would go ower strictly to work with no poor
man.'
STEPHEN. 'Troth, Sir John, there was naebody in the room but
Dougal MacCallum the butler. But, as your honour kens, he has
e'en followed his auld master.
SIR JOHN. 'I have little doubt ye BORROWED the money, Steenie.
It is the PAYMENT to my father that I want to have some proof
of.'
STEPHEN. 'The siller maun be about the house, Sir John. And
since your honour never got it, and his honour that was canna
have taen it wi' him, maybe some of the family may have seen it.'
SIR JOHN. 'We will examine the servants, Stephen; that is but
reasonable.'
But lackey and lass, and page and groom, all denied stoutly that
they had ever seen such a bag of money as my gudesire described.
What was waur, he had unluckily not mentioned to any living soul
of them his purpose of paying his rent. Ae quean had noticed
something under his arm, but she took it for the pipes.
Sir John Redgauntlet ordered the servants out of the room, and
then said to my gudesire, 'Now, Steenie, ye see ye have fair
play; and, as I have little doubt ye ken better where to find the
siller than ony other body, I beg, in fair terms, and for your
own sake, that you will end this fasherie; for, Stephen, ye maun
pay or flit.'
'So am I, Stephen,' said his honour; 'and so are all the folks in
the house, I hope. But if there be a knave amongst us, it must
be he that tells the story he cannot prove.' He paused, and then
added, mair sternly, 'If I understand your trick, sir, you want
to take advantage of some malicious reports concerning things in
this family, and particularly respecting my father's sudden
death, thereby to cheat me out of the money, and perhaps take
away my character, by insinuating that I have received the rent I
am demanding. Where do you suppose this money to be? I insist
upon knowing.'
Down the stairs he ran (for the parlour was nae place for him
after such a word) and he heard the laird swearing blood and
wounds behind him, as fast; as ever did Sir Robert, and roaring
for the bailie and the baron-officer.
Away rode my gudesire to his chief creditor (him they ca'd Laurie
Lapraik) to try if he could make onything out of him; but when he
tauld his story, he got but the worst word in his wame--thief,
beggar, and dyvour, were the saftest terms; and to the boot of
these hard terms, Laurie brought up the auld story of his dipping
his hand in the blood of God's saunts, just as if a tenant could
have helped riding with the laird, and that a laird like Sir
Robert Redgauntlet. My gudesire was, by this time, far beyond
the bounds of patience, and, while he and Laurie were at deil
speed the liars, he was wanchancie aneugh to abuse Lapraik's
doctrine as weel as the man, ond said things that garr'd folks'
flesh grue that heard them;--he wasna just himsell, and he had
lived wi' a wild set in his day.
At last they parted, and my gudesire was to ride hame through the
wood of Pitmurkie, that is a' fou of black firs, as they say.--I
ken the wood, but the firs may be black or white for what I can
tell.--At the entry of the wood there is a wild common, and on
the edge of the common, a little lonely change-house, that was
keepit then by an ostler-wife, they suld hae caa'd her Tibbie
Faw, and there puir Steenie cried for a mutchkin of brandy, for
he had had no refreshment the haill day. Tibbie was earnest wi'
him to take a bite of meat, but he couldna think o't, nor would
he take his foot out of the stirrup, and took off the brandy
wholely at twa draughts, and named a toast at each:--the first
was the memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and might he never lie
quiet in his grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and
the second was a health to Man's Enemy, if he would but get him
back the pock of siller or tell him what came o't, for he saw the
haill world was like to regard him as a thief and a cheat, and he
took that waur than even the ruin of his house and hauld.
But it's like the stranger was ane that doesna lightly yield his
point; for, ride as Steenie liked, be was ay beside him at the
selfsame pace. At last my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, grew half
angry, and, to say the truth, half feared.
So my gudesire, to ease his ain heart, mair than from any hope of
help, told him the story from beginning to end.
'It's a hard pinch,' said the stranger; 'but I think I can help
you.'
'If you could lend the money, sir, and take a lang day--I ken nae
other help on earth,' said my gudesire.
'But there may be some under the earth,' said the stranger.
'Come, I'll be frank wi' you; I could lend you the money on bond,
but you would maybe scruple my terms. Now, I can tell you, that
your auld laird is disturbed in his grave by your curses, and the
wailing of your family, and if ye daur venture to go to see him,
he will give you the receipt.'
Weel, they rode on through the thickest of the wood, when, all of
a sudden, the horse stopped at the door of a great house; and,
but that he knew the place was ten miles off, my father would
have thought he was at Redgauntlet Castle. They rode into the
outer courtyard, through the muckle faulding yetts and aneath the
auld portcullis; and the whole front of the house was lighted,
and there were pipes and fiddles, and as much dancing and deray
within as used to be at Sir Robert's house at Pace and Yule, and
such high seasons. They lap off, and my gudesire, as seemed to
him, fastened his horse to the very ring he had tied him to that
morning, when he gaed to wait on the young Sir John.
He knocked at the ha' door just as he was wont, and his auld
acquaintance, Dougal MacCallum--just after his wont, too,--came
to open the door, and said, 'Piper Steenie, are ye there, lad?
Sir Robert has been crying for you.'
'Never fash yoursell wi' me,' said Dougal, 'but look to yoursell;
and see ye tak naethlng frae ony body here, neither meat, drink,
or siller, except just the receipt that is your ain.'
So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were
weel kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; and
there was as much singing of profane sangs, and birling of red
wine, and speaking blasphemy and sculduddry, as had ever been in
Redgauntlet Castle when it was at the blithest.
They that waited at the table were just the wicked serving-men
and troopers, that had done their work and cruel bidding on
earth. There was the Lang Lad of the Nethertown, that helped to
take Argyle; and the bishop's summoner, that they called the
Deil's Rattle-bag; and the wicked guardsmen in their laced coats;
and the savage Highland Amorites, that shed blood like water; and
many a proud serving-man, haughty of heart and bloody of hand,
cringing to the rich, and making them wickeder than they would
be; grinding the poor to powder, when the rich had broken them to
fragments. And mony, mony mair were coming and ganging, a' as
busy in their vocation as if they had been alive.
With much ado my father gat breath to say that Sir John would not
settle without his honour's receipt.
'Ye shall hae that for a tune of the pipes, Steenie,' said the
appearance of Sir Robert--'Play us up "Weel hoddled, Luckie".'
Now this was a tune my gudesire learned frae a warlock, that
heard it when they were worshipping Satan at their meetings, and
my gudesire had sometimes played it at the ranting suppers in
Redgauntlet Castle, but never very willingly; and now he grew
cauld at the very name of it, and said, for excuse, he hadna his
pipes wi' him.
'Then ye maun eat and drink, Steenie,' said the figure; 'for we
do little else here; and it's ill speaking between a fou man and
a fasting.'
Now these were the very words that the bloody Earl of Douglas
said to keep the king's messenger in hand while he cut the head
off MacLellan of Bombie, at the Threave Castle, [The reader is
referred for particulars to Pitscottie's HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.]
and that put Steenie mair and mair on his guard. So he spoke up
like a man, and said he came neither to eat, or drink. or make
minstrelsy; but simply for his ain--to ken what was come o' the
money he had paid, and to get a discharge for it; and he was so
stout-hearted by this time that he charged Sir Robert for
conscience-sake (he had no power to say the holy name) and as he
hoped for peace and rest, to spread no snares for him, but just
to give him his ain.
The appearance gnashed its teeth and laughed, but it took from a
large pocket-book the receipt, and handed it to Steenie. 'There
is your receipt, ye pitiful cur; and for the money, my dog-whelp
of a son may go look for it in the Cat's Cradle.'
My gudesire uttered mony thanks, and was about to retire when Sir
Robert roared aloud, 'Stop, though, thou sack-doudling son of a
whore! I am not done with thee. HERE we do nothing for nothing;
and you must return on this very day twelvemonth, to pay your
master the homage that you owe me for my protection.'
He had no sooner uttered the word than all was dark around him;
and he sank on the earth with such a sudden shock, that he lost
both breath and sense.
How lang Steenie lay there, he could not tell; but when he came
to himsell, he was lying in the auld kirkyard of Redgauntlet
parochine just at the door of the family aisle, and the scutcheon
of the auld knight, Sir Robert, hanging over his head. There was
a deep morning fog on grass and gravestane around him, and his
horse was feeding quietly beside the minister's twa cows.
Steenie would have thought the whole was a dream, but he had the
receipt in his hand, fairly written and signed by the auld laird;
only the last letters of his name were a little disorderly,
written like one seized with sudden pain.
'Well, you dyvour bankrupt,' was the first word, 'have you
brought me my rent?'
'No,' answered my gudesire, 'I have not; but I have brought your
honour Sir Robert's receipt for it.'
Sir John looked at every line, and at every letter, with much
attention; and at last, at the date, which my gudesire had not
observed,--'FROM MY APPOINTED PLACE," he read, 'THIS TWENTY-FIFTH
OF NOVEMBER.'--'What!--That is yesterday!--Villain, thou must
have gone to hell for this!'
'I will delate you for a warlock to the Privy Council!' said Sir
John. 'I will send you to your master, the devil, with the help
of a tar-barrel and a torch!'
Sir John paused, composed himsell, and desired to hear the full
history; and my gudesire told it him from point to point, as I
have told it you--word for word, neither more nor less,
Sir John was silent again for a long time, and at last he said,
very composedly, 'Steenie, this story of yours concerns the
honour of many a noble family besides mine; and if it be a
leasing-making, to keep yourself out of my danger, the least you
can expect is to have a redhot iron driven through your tongue,
and that will be as bad as scauding your fingers wi' a redhot
chanter. But yet it may be true, Steenie; and if the money cast
up I shall not know what to think of it. But where shall we find
the Cat's Cradle? There are cats enough about the old house, but
I think they kitten without the ceremony of bed or cradle.'
'We were best ask Hutcheon,' said my gudesire; 'he kens a' the
odd corners about as weel as--another serving-man that is now
gane, and that I wad not like to name.'
It was a dangerous place to climb, for the ladder was auld and
frail, and wanted ane or twa rounds. However, up got Sir John,
and entered at the turret-door, where his body stopped the only
little light that was in the bit turret. Something flees at him
wi' a vengeance, maist dang him back ower--bang gaed the knight's
pistol, and Hutcheon, that held the ladder, and my gudesire that
stood beside him, hears a loud skelloch. A minute after, Sir
John flings the body of the jackanape down to them, and cries
that the siller is fund, and that they should come up and help
him. And there was the bag of siller sure aneugh, and mony orra
thing besides, that had been missing for mony a day. And Sir
John, when he had riped the turret weel, led my gudesire into the
dining-parlour, and took him by the hand and spoke kindly to him,
and said he was sorry he should have doubted his word and that he
would hereafter be a good master to him to make amends.
'And now, Steenie,' said Sir John, 'although this vision of yours
tend, on the whole, to my father's credit, as an honest man, that
he should, even after his death, desire to see justice done to a
poor man like you, yet you are sensible that ill-dispositioned
men might make bad constructions upon it, concerning his soul's
health. So, I think, we had better lay the haill dirdum on that
ill-deedie creature, Major Weir, and say naething about your
dream in the wood of Pitmurkie. You had taken ower muckle brandy
to be very certain about onything; and, Steenie, this receipt'
(his hand shook while he held it out),--'it's but a queer kind of
document, and we will do best, I think, to put it quietly in the
fire.'
'Od, but for as queer as it is, it's a' the voucher I have for my
rent,' said my gudesire, who was afraid, it may be, of losing the
benefit of Sir Robert's discharge.
'I will bear the contents to your credit in the rental-book, and
give you a discharge under my own hand,' said Sir John, 'and that
on the spot. And, Steenie, if you can hold your tongue about
this matter, you shall sit, from this term downward, at an easier
rent.'
'Do not call the phantom my father!' said Sir John, interrupting
him.
'Weel, then, the thing that was so like him,' said my gudesire;
'he spoke of my coming back to see him this time twelvemonth, and
it's a weight on my conscience.'
My gudesire gaed down to the Manse, and the minister, when he had
heard the story, said it was his real opinion that though my
gudesire had gaen very far in tampering with dangerous matters,
yet, as he had refused the devil's arles (for such was the offer
of meat and drink) and had refused to do homage by piping at his
bidding, he hoped, that if he held a circumspect walk hereafter,
Satan could take little advantage by what was come and gane.
And, indeed, my gudesire, of his ain accord, lang foreswore baith
the pipes and the brandy--it was not even till the year was out,
and the fatal day past, that he would so much as take the fiddle,
or drink usquebaugh or tippeny.
'Aye, but they had baith to sup the sauce o't sooner or later,'
said Wandering Willie--'what was fristed wasna forgiven. Sir
John died before he was much over three-score; and it was just
like of a moment's illness. And for my gudesire, though he
departed in fullness of life, yet there was my father, a yauld
man of forty-five, fell down betwixt the stilts of his pleugh,
and rase never again, and left nae bairn but me, a puir
sightless, fatherless, motherless creature, could neither work
nor want. Things gaed weel aneugh at first; for Sir Redwald
Redgauntlet, the only son of Sir John, and the oye of auld Sir
Robert, and, waes me! the last of the honourable house, took the
farm aff our hands, and brought me into his household to have
care of me. He liked music, and I had the best teachers baith
England and Scotland could gie me. Mony a merry year was I wi'
him; but waes me! he gaed out with other pretty men in the
Forty-five--I'll say nae mair about it--My head never settled
weel since I lost him; and if I say another word about it, deil a
bar will I have the heart to play the night.--Look out, my gentle
chap,' he resumed in a different tone, 'ye should see the lights
at Brokenburn glen by this time.'
LETTER XII
And so, despite thy solemn smile and sapient shake of the head, I
will go on picking such interest as I can out of my trivial
adventures, even though that interest should be the creation of
my own fancy; nor will I cease to indict on thy devoted eyes the
labour of perusing the scrolls in which I shall record my
narrative.
I was not quite easy in his company; for, now that his minstrel
pride was hurt, the man had changed from the quiet, decorous, I
might almost say respectable person, which he seemed while he
told his tale, into the appearance of a fierce, brawling,
dissolute stroller. So that when he entered the large hut, where
a great number of fishers, with their wives and daughters, were
engaged in eating, drinking, and dancing, I was somewhat afraid
that the impatient violence of my companion might procure us an
indifferent reception.
'It was nae mischance, praised be Heaven,' said Willie, 'but the
absence of the lazy loon Rob the Rambler, my comrade, that didna
come to meet me on the Links; but I hae gotten a braw consort in
his stead, worth a dozen of him, the unhanged blackguard.'
'And wha is't tou's gotten, Wullie, lad?' said half a score of
voices, while all eyes were turned on your humble servant, who
kept the best countenance he could, though not quite easy at
becoming the centre to which all eyes were pointed.
'I ken him by his hemmed cravat,' said one fellow; 'it's Gil
Hobson, the souple tailor frae Burgh. Ye are welcome to
Scotland, ye prick-the-clout loon,' he said, thrusting forth a
paw; much the colour of a badger's back, and of most portentous
dimensions.
'Come o' thee?' said the dame; 'mishanter on the auld beard o'
ye! ye could play for twenty hours on end, and tire out the
haill countryside wi' dancing before ye laid down your bow,
saving for a by-drink or the like o' that.'
'In troth, dame,' answered Willie, 'ye are no sae far wrang; sae
if my comrade is to take his dance, ye maun gie me my drink, and
then bob it away like Madge of Middlebie.'
The drink was soon brought; but while Willie was partaking of it,
a party entered the hut, which arrested my attention at once, and
intercepted the intended gallantry with which I had proposed to
present my hand to the fresh-coloured, well-made, white-ankled
Thetis, who had obtained me manumission from my musical task.
This was nothing less than the sudden appearance of the old woman
whom the laird had termed Mabel; Cristal Nixon, his male
attendant; and the young person who had said grace to us when I
supped with him.
Such being my feelings, conceive how they must have been excited,
when, like a beam upon a cloud, I saw this uncommonly beautiful
girl enter the apartment in which they were dancing; not,
however, with the air of an equal, but that of a superior, come
to grace with her presence the festival of her dependants. The
old man and woman attended, with looks as sinister as hers were
lovely, like two of the worst winter months waiting upon the
bright-eyed May.
'Deil's in the fiddler lad,' was muttered from more quarters than
one--'saw folk ever sic a thing as a shame-faced fiddler before?'
Meantime the floor remained empty, and as the mirth of the good
meeting was somewhat checked, I ventured, as a DERNIER RESSORT,
to propose a minuet. She thanked me, and told me haughtily
enough, 'she was here to encourage the harmless pleasures of
these good folks, but was not disposed to make an exhibition of
her own indifferent dancing for their amusement.'
She paused a moment, as if she expected me to suggest something;
and as I remained silent and rebuked, she bowed her head more
graciously, and said, 'Not to affront you, however, a country-
dance, if you please.'
'Darsie Latimer was indeed the person that had now the honour and
happiness'--
'And why should your ignorance on these points drive you into low
society and idle habits?' answered my female monitor. 'Is it
manly to wait till fortune cast her beams upon you, when by
exertion of your own energy you might distinguish yourself? Do
not the pursuits of learning lie open to you--of manly ambition
--of war? But no--not of war, that has already cost you too
dear.'
'At least permit me to reply, that reason and sense never assumed
a fairer form--of persuasion,' I hastily added; for she turned
from me--nor did she give me another opportunity of continuing
what I had to say till the next pause of the dance, when,
determined to bring our dialogue to a point, I said, 'You
mentioned manhood also, and in the same breath, personal danger.
My ideas of manhood suggest that it is cowardice to retreat
before dangers of a doubtful character. You, who appear to know
so much of my fortunes that I might call you my guardian angel,
tell me what these dangers are, that I may judge whether manhood
calls on me to face or to fly them.'
'You make me pay dearly for acting as your humane adviser,' she
replied at last: 'I acknowledge an interest in your fate, and
yet I dare not tell you whence it arises; neither am I at liberty
to say why, or from whom, you are in danger; but it is not less
true that danger is near and imminent. Ask me no more, but, for
your own sake, begone from this country. Elsewhere you are safe
--here you do but invite your fate.'
'But am I doomed to bid thus farewell to almost the only human
being who has showed an interest in my welfare? Do not say so--
say that we shall meet again, and the hope shall be the leading
star to regulate my course!'
So saying, she again turned from me, nor did she address me until
the dance was on the point of ending, when she said, 'Do not
attempt to speak to or approach me again in the course of the
night; leave the company as soon as you can, but not abruptly,
and God be with you.'
I handed her to her seat, and did not quit the fair palm I held,
without expressing my feelings by a gentle pressure. She
coloured slightly, and withdrew her hand, but not angrily.
Seeing the eyes of Cristal and Mabel sternly fixed on me, I bowed
deeply, and withdrew from her; my heart saddening, and my eyes
becoming dim in spite of me, as the shifting crowd hid us from
each other.
'Aye, lad, ye seem unco sune weary, to dance sae lightly? Better
the nag that ambles a' the day, than him that makes a brattle for
a mile, and then's dune wi' the road.'
This was a fair challenge, and I could not decline accepting it.
Besides, I could see Dame Martin was queen of the revels; and so
many were the rude and singular figures about me, that I was by
no means certain whether I might not need some protection. I
seized on her willing hand, and we took our places in the dance,
where, if I did not acquit myself with all the accuracy of step
and movement which I had before attempted, I at least came up to
the expectations of my partner, who said, and almost swore, 'I
was prime at it;' while, stimulated to her utmost exertions, she
herself frisked like a kid, snapped her fingers like castanets,
whooped like a Bacchanal, and bounded from the floor like a
tennis-ball,--aye, till the colour of her garters was no
particular mystery. She made the less secret of this, perhaps,
that they were sky-blue, and fringed with silver.
The time has been that this would have been special fun; or
rather, last night was the only time I can recollect these four
years when it would not have been so; yet, at this moment, I
cannot tell you how I longed to be rid of Dame Martin. I almost
wished she would sprain one of those 'many-twinkling' ankles,
which served her so alertly; and when, in the midst of her
exuberant caprioling, I saw my former partner leaving the
apartment, and with eyes, as I thought, turning towards me, this
unwillingness to carry on the dance increased to such a point,
that I was almost about to feign a sprain or a dislocation
myself, in order to put an end to the performance. But there
were around me scores of old women, all of whom looked as if they
might have some sovereign recipe for such an accident; and,
remembering Gil Blas, and his pretended disorder in the robber's
cavern, I thought it as wise to play Dame Martin fair, and dance
till she thought proper to dismiss me. What I did I resolved to
do strenuously, and in the latter part of the exhibition I cut
and sprang from the floor as high and as perpendicularly as Dame
Martin herself; and received, I promise you, thunders of
applause, for the common people always prefer exertion and
agility to grace. At length Dame Martin could dance no more,
and, rejoicing at my release, I led her to a seat, and took the
privilege of a partner to attend her.
I could only atone for the alleged offence by fetching her some
refreshment, of which she readily partook.
'Hout wi' your fleeching,' said Dame Martin. 'Gae wa--gae wa,
lad; dinna blaw in folk's lugs that gate; me and Miss Lilias
even'd thegither! Na, na, lad--od, she is maybe four or five
years younger than the like o' me,--bye and attour her gentle
havings.'
'His daughter, man? Na, na, only his niece--and sib aneugh to
him, I think.'
'Aye, indeed,' I replied; 'I thought she had borne his name?'
'Trip away, then, dearie,' said the vindictive man of the waters,
without offering his hand; 'there,' pointing to the floor, 'is a
roomy berth for you.'
I slipped half a guinea into the old man's hand, who answered,
'Truts pruts! nonsense but I 'se no refuse, trusting ye can
afford it. Awa wi' ye--and if ony body stops ye, cry on me.'
Here Willie's wife, who was smoking in the chimney corner, took
up the praises of her 'hinnie,' as she called him, and
endeavoured to awaken my generosity afresh, by describing the
dangers from which, as she was pleased to allege, her husband's
countenance had assuredly been the means of preserving me. I was
not, however, to be fooled out of more money at this time, and
went to bed in haste, full of vanous cogitations.
I have since spent a couple of days betwixt Mount Sharon and this
place, and betwixt reading, writing to thee this momentous
history, forming plans for seeing the lovely Lilias, and--partly,
I think, for the sake of contradiction--angling a little in spite
of Joshua'a scruples--though I am rather liking the amusement
better as I begin to have some success in it.
LETTER XIII
'In further study, ye would say, Alan. But that is not the way
either--ye must walk the hospitals--ye must cure Lazarus--ye must
cut and carve on a departed subject, to show your skill.'
'I am sure,' I replied, 'I will undertake the cause of any poor
man with pleasure, and bestow as much pains upon it as if it were
a duke's; but for the next two or three days'--
'Never mind the court of the Gentiles, man,' said my father; 'we
will have you into the Sanctuary at once--over shoes, over
boots.'
'Ye cannot spoil it, Alan,' said my father, rubbing his hands
with much complacency ; 'that is the very cream of the business,
man--it is just, as I said before, a subject upon whilk all the
TYRONES have been trying their whittles for fifteen years; and as
there have been about ten or a dozen agents concerned, and each
took his own way, the case is come to that pass, that Stair or
Amiston could not mend it; and I do not think even you, Alan, can
do it much harm--ye may get credit by it, but ye can lose none.'
'He has been pleaing in the court for fifteen years,' said my
father, in a tone of commiseration, which seemed to acknowledge
that this fact was enough to account for the poor man's condition
both in mind and circumstances.
'Besides, sir,' I added, 'he is on the Poor's Roll; and you know
there are advocates regularly appointed to manage those cases;
and for me to presume to interfere'--
Once more, what could I say? I saw from my father's hurried and
alarmed manner, that nothing could vex him so much as failing in
the point he had determined to carry, and once more intimated my
readiness to do my best, under every disadvantage.
'Well, well, my boy,' said my father, 'the Lord will make your
days long in the land, for the honour you have given to your
father's grey hairs. You may find wiser advisers, Alan, but none
that can wish you better.'
You must have seen this original, Darsie, who, like others in the
same predicament, continues to haunt the courts of justice, where
he has made shipwreck of time, means, and understanding. Such
insane paupers have sometimes seemed to me to resemble wrecks
lying upon the shoals on the Goodwin Sands, or in Yarmouth Roads,
warning other vessels to keep aloof from the banks on which they
have been lost; or rather, such ruined clients are like
scarecrows and potato-bogies, distributed through the courts to
scare away fools from the scene of litigation.
'Mine eleventh in number,' said Peter; 'I have a new one every
year; I wish I could get a new coat as regularly.'
'Your agent for the time,' resumed my father; 'and you, who are
acquainted with the forms, know that the client states the cause
to the agent--the agent to the counsel'--
'Before you begin,' said Peter Peebles 'I'll thank you to order me
a morsel of bread and cheese, or some cauld meat, or broth, or
the like alimentary provision; I was so anxious to see your son,
that I could not eat a mouthful of dinner.'
My father started to help him with his own hand, and in due
measure; but, infinitely to my amusement, Peter got possession of
the bottle by the neck, and my father's ideas of hospitality were
far too scrupulous to permit his attempting, by any direct means,
to redeem it; so that Peter returned to the table triumphant,
with his prey in his clutch.
'If the kirk is ower muckle, we can sing mass in the quire,' said
Peter, helping himself in the goblet out of which he had been
drinking the small beer. 'What is it, usquebaugh?--BRANDY, as I
am an honest man! I had almost forgotten the name and taste of
brandy. Mr. Fairford elder, your good health' (a mouthful of
brandy), 'Mr. Alan Fairford, wishing you well through your
arduous undertaking' (another go-down of the comfortable liquor).
'And now, though you have given a tolerable breviate of this
great lawsuit, of whilk everybody has heard something that has
walked the boards in the Outer House (here's to ye again, by way
of interim decreet) yet ye have omitted to speak a word of the
arrestments.'
'As Tweed comes to Melrose, I think,' said the litigant; and then
filling his goblet about a quarter full of brandy, as if in
absence of mind, 'Oh, Mr. Alan Fairford, ye are a lucky man to
buckle to such a cause as mine at the very outset! it is like a
specimen of all causes, man. By the Regiam, there is not a
REMEDIUM JURIS in the practiques but ye'll find a spice o't.
Here's to your getting weel through with it--Pshut--I am drinking
naked spirits, I think. But if the heathen he ower strong, we'll
christen him with the brewer' (here he added a little small beer
to his beverage, paused, rolled his eyes, winked, and
proceeded),--'Mr. Fairford--the action of assault and battery,
Mr. Fairford, when I compelled the villain Plainstanes to pull my
nose within two steps of King Charles's statue, in the Parliament
Close--there I had him in a hose-net. Never man could tell me
how to shape that process--no counsel that ever selled mind could
condescend and say whether it were best to proceed by way of
petition and complaint, AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, with consent of
his Majesty's advocate, or by action on the statute for battery
PENDENTE LITE, whilk would be the winning my plea at once, and so
getting a back-door out of court.--By the Regiam, that beef and
brandy is unco het at my heart--I maun try the ale again' (sipped
a little beer); 'and the ale's but cauld, I maun e'en put in the
rest of the brandy.'
The box fell from his hands, and his body would at the same time
have fallen from the chair, had not I supported him.
I did set to work, Darsie; for who could resist such motives?
With my father's assistance, I have mastered the details,
confused as they are; and on Tuesday I shall plead as well for
Peter Peebles as I could for a duke. Indeed, I feel my head so
clear on the subject as to be able to write this long letter to
you; into which, however, Peter and his lawsuit have insinuated
themselves so far as to show you how much they at present occupy
my thoughts. Once more, be careful of yourself, and mindful of
me, who am ever thine, while
ALAN FAIRFORD.
CHAPTER I
NARRATIVE
But the absence of Darsie was far from promoting the end which
the elder Mr. Fairford had expected and desired. The young men
were united by the closest bonds of intimacy; and the more so,
that neither of them sought nor desired to admit any others into
their society. Alan Fairford was averse to general company, from
a disposition naturally reserved, and Darsie Latimer from a
painful sense of his own unknown origin, peculiarly afflicting in
a country where high and low are professed genealogists. The
young men were all in all to each other; it is no wonder,
therefore, that their separation was painful, and that its
effects upon Alan Fairford, joined to the anxiety occasioned by
the tenor of his friend's letters, greatly exceeded what the
senior had anticipated. The young man went through his usual
duties, his studies, and the examinations to which he was
subjected, but with nothing like the zeal and assiduity which he
had formerly displayed; and his anxious and observant father saw
but too plainly that his heart was with his absent comrade.
With these explanations, the reader will hold a man of the elder
Fairford's sense and experience free from the hazardous and
impatient curiosity with which boys fling a puppy into a deep
pond, merely to see if the creature can swim. However confident
in his son's talents, which were really considerable, he would
have been very sorry to have involved him in the duty of pleading
a complicated and difficult case, upon his very first appearance
at the bar, had he not resorted to it as an effectual way to
prevent the young man from taking a step which his habits of
thinking represented as a most fatal one at his outset of life.
Betwixt two evils, Mr. Fairford chose that which was in his own
apprehension the least; and, like a brave officer sending forth
his son to battle, rather chose he should die upon the breach,
than desert the conflict with dishonour. Neither did he leave
him to his own unassisted energies. Like Alpheus preceding
Hercules, he himself encountered the Augean mass of Peter
Peebles' law-matters. It was to the old man a labour of love to
place in a clear and undistorted view the real merits of this
case, which the carelessness and blunders of Peter's former
solicitors had converted into a huge chaotic mass of
unintelligible technicality; and such was his skill and industry,
that he was able, after the severe toil of two or three days, to
present to the consideration of the young counsel the principal
facts of the case, in a light equally simple and comprehensible.
With the assistance of a solicitor so affectionate and
indefatigable, Alan Fairford was enabled, then the day of trial
arrived, to walk towards the court, attended by his anxious yet
encouraging parent, with some degree of confidence that he would
lose no reputation upon this arduous occasion.
They were met at the door of the court by Poor Peter Peebles in
his usual plenitude of wig and celsitude of hat. He seized on
the young pleader like a lion on his prey. 'How is a' wi' you,
Mr. Alan--how is a' wi' you, man? The awfu' day is come at last
--a day that will be lang minded in this house. Poor Peter
Peebles against Plainstanes--conjoined proceases--Hearing in
presence--stands for the Short Roll for this day--I have not been
able to sleep for a week for thinking of it, and, I dare to say,
neither has the Lord President himsell--for such a cause!! But
your father garr'd me tak a wee drap ower muckle of his pint
bottle the other night; it's no right to mix brandy wi' business,
Mr. Fairford. I would have been the waur o' liquor if I would
have drank as muckle as you twa would have had me. But there's a
time for a' things, and if ye will dine with me after the case is
heard, or whilk is the same, or maybe better, I'LL gang my ways
hame wi' YOU, and I winna object to a cheerfu' glass, within the
bounds of moderation.'
Old Fairford shrugged his shoulders and hurried past the client,
saw his son wrapped in the sable bombazine, which, in his eyes,
was more venerable than an archbishop's lawn, and could not help
fondly patting his shoulder, and whispering to him to take
courage, and show he was worthy to wear it. The party entered
the Outer Hall of the court, (once the place of meeting of the
ancient Scottish Parliament), and which corresponds to the use of
Westminster Hall in England, serving as a vestibule to the Inner
House, as it is termed, and a place of dominion to certain
sedentary personages called Lords Ordinary.
'Hush, hush, my dear Alan,' said the old gentleman, almost at his
own wit's end upon hearing this dilemma; 'dinna mind the silly
ne'er-do-weel; we cannot keep the man from hearing his own cause,
though he be not quite right in the head.'
Relieved from his tormentor, Alan Fairford had time to rally his
recollections, which, in the irritation of his spirits, had
nearly escaped him, and to prepare himself far a task, the
successful discharge or failure in which must, he was aware, have
the deepest influence upon his fortunes. He had pride, was not
without a consciousness of talent, and the sense of his father's
feelings upon the subject impelled him to the utmost exertion.
Above all, he had that sort of self-command which is essential to
success in every arduous undertaking, and he was constitutionally
free from that feverish irritability by which those whose over-
active imaginations exaggerate difficulties, render themselves
incapable of encountering such when they arrive.
The court was very much crowded; for much amusement had been
received on former occasions when Peter had volunteered his own
oratory, and had been completely successful in routing the
gravity of the whole procedure, and putting to silence, not
indeed the counsel of the opposite party, but his own.
The counsel on the other side arose, an old practitioner, who had
noted too closely the impression made by Alan's pleading not to
fear the consequences of an immediate decision. He paid the
highest compliments to his very young brother--'the Benjamin, as
he would presume to call him, of the learned Faculty--said the
alleged hardships of Mr. Peebles were compensated by his being
placed in a situation where the benevolence of their lordships
had assigned him gratuitously such assistance as he might not
otherwise have obtained at a high price--and allowed his young
brother had put many things in such a new point of view, that,
although he was quite certain of his ability to refute them, he
was honestly desirous of having a few hours to arrange his
answer, in order to be able to follow Mr. Fairford from point to
point. He had further to observe, there was one point of the
case to which his brother, whose attention had been otherwise so
wonderfully comprehensive, had not given the consideration which
he expected; it was founded on the interpretation of certain
correspondence which had passed betwixt the parties soon after
the dissolution of the copartnery.'
The court having heard Mr. Tough, readily allowed him two days
for preparing himself, hinting at the same time that he might
find his task difficult, and affording the young counsel, with
high encomiums upon the mode in which he had acquitted himself,
the choice of speaking, either now or at the next calling of the
cause, upon the point which Plainstanes's lawyer had adverted to.
Alan modestly apologized for what in fact had been an omission
very pardonable in so complicated a case, and professed himself
instantly ready to go through that correspondence, and prove that
it was in form and substance exactly applicable to the view of
the case he had submitted to their lordships. He applied to his
father, who sat behind him, to hand him, from time to time, the
letters, in the order in which he meant to read and comment upon
them.
CHAPTER II
The truth was, that on the morning of this eventful day, Mr.
Alexander Fairford had received from his correspondent and
friend, Provost Crosbie of Dumfries, a letter of the following
tenor:
'DEAR SIR,
'Your respected favour of 25th ultimo, per favour of Mr. Darsie
Latimer, reached me in safety, and I showed to the young
gentleman such attention as he was pleased to accept of. The
object of my present writing is twofold. First, the council are
of opinion that you should now begin to stir in the thirlage
cause; and they think they will be able, from evidence NOVITER
REPERTUM, to enable you to amend your condescendence upon the use
and wont of the burgh, touching the GRANA INVECTA ET ILLATA. So
you will please consider yourself as authorized to speak to Mr.
Pest, and lay before him the papers which you will receive by
the coach. The council think that a fee of two guineas may be
sufficient on this occasion, as Mr. Pest had three for drawing
the original condescendence.
'I take the opportunity of adding that there has been a great
riot among the Solway fishermen, who have destroyed, in a
masterful manner, the stake-nets set up near the mouth of this
river; and have besides attacked the house of Quaker Geddes, one
of the principal partners of the Tide-net Fishing Company, and
done a great deal of damage. Am sorry to add, young Mr. Latimer
was in the fray and has not since been heard of. Murder is spoke
of, but that may be a word of course. As the young gentleman has
behaved rather oddly while in these parts, as in declining to
dine with me more than once, and going about the country with
strolling fiddlers and such-like, I rather hope that his present
absence is only occasioned by a frolic; but as his servant has
been making inquiries of me respecting his master, I thought it
best to acquaint you in course of post. I have only to add that
our sheriff has taken a precognition, and committed one or two of
the rioters. If I can be useful in this matter, either by
advertising for Mr. Latimer as missing, publishing a reward, or
otherwise, I will obey your respected instructions, being your
most obedient to
command,
'WILLIAM CROSBIE.'
The habits of the fishers were rude; as he well knew, though not
absolutely sanguinary or ferocious; and there had been instances
of their transporting persons who had interfered in their
smuggling trade to the Isle of Man and elsewhere, and keeping
them under restraint for many weeks. On this account, Mr.
Fairford was naturally led to feel anxiety concerning the fate of
his late inmate; and, at a less interesting moment, would
certainly have set out himself, or licensed his son to go in
pursuit of his friend.
'The paper dropped from the old man's hand when he was thus
assured of the misfortune which he apprehended. His first idea
was to get a postchaise and pursue the fugitive; but he
recollected that, upon the very rare occasions when Alan had
shown himself indocile to the PATRIA POTESTAS, his natural ease
and gentleness of disposition seemed hardened into obstinacy, and
that now, entitled, as arrived at the years of majority and a
member of the learned faculty, to direct his own motions, there
was great doubt, whether, in the event of his overtaking his son,
he might be able to prevail upon him to return back. In such a
risk of failure he thought it wiser to desist from his purpose,
especially as even his success in such a pursuit would give a
ridiculous ECLAT to the whole affair, which could not be
otherwise than prejudicial to his son's rising character.
Ere his pen had touched the paper, James was in the room again.
'Aye, aye, aye,' answered Saunders, bitterly; 'he has e'en made a
moonlight flitting, like my lord's ain nevoy.'
'Shall I say sae, sir?' said James, who, as an old soldier, was
literal in all things touching the service.
'The devil! no, no!--Bid the lad sit down and taste our ale. I
will write his lordship an answer.'
Once more the gilt paper was resumed, and once more the door was
opened by James.
'Oh, the deevil take their civility!' said poor Saunders. set
him down to drink too--I will write to his lordship.'
'The lads will bide your pleasure, sir, as lang as I keep the
bicker fou; but this ringing is like to wear out the bell, I
think; there are they at it again.'
'Will you be an idiot, sir?' said Mr. Fairford. 'Show Mr. Dean
into the parlour.'
'Well, well, Mr. Fairford, you know best,' answered the learned
dean; 'if there be death or marriage in the case, a will or a
wedding is to be preferred to all other business. I am happy Mr.
Alan is so much recovered as to be able for travel, and wish you
a very good morning.'
Having thus taken his ground to the Dean of Faculty, Mr. Fairford
hastily wrote cards in answer to the inquiry of the three judges,
accounting for Alan's absence in the same manner. These, being
properly sealed and addressed, he delivered to James with
directions to dismiss the particoloured gentry, who, in the
meanwhile, had consumed a gallon of twopenny ale, while
discussing points of law, and addressing each other by their
masters' titles. [The Scottish judges are distinguished by the
title of lord prefixed to their own temporal designation. As the
ladies of these official dignitaries do not bear any share in
their husbands' honours, they are distinguished only by their
lords' family name. They were not always contented with this
species of Salique law, which certainly is somewhat inconsistent.
But their pretensions to title are said to have been long since
repelled by James V, the sovereign who founded the College of
Justice. 'I,' said he, 'made the caries lords, but who the devil
made the carlines ladies?']
The exertion which these matters demanded, and the interest which
so many persons of legal distinction appeared to have taken in
his son, greatly relieved the oppressed spirit of Saunders
Fairford, who continued, to talk mysteriously of the very
important business which had interfered with his son's attendance
during the brief remainder of the session. He endeavoured to lay
the same unction to his own heart; but here the application was
less fortunate, for his conscience told him that no end, however
important, which could be achieved in Darsie Latimer's affairs,
could be balanced against the reputation which Alan was like to
forfeit by deserting the cause of Poor Peter Peebles.
In the meanwhile, although the haze which surrounded the cause,
or causes, of that unfortunate litigant had been for a time
dispelled by Alan's eloquence, like a fog by the thunder of
artillery, yet it seemed once more to settle down upon the mass
of litigation, thick as the palpable darkness of Egypt, at the
very sound of Mr. Tough's voice, who, on the second day after
Alan's departure, was heard in answer to the opening counsel.
Deep-mouthed, long-breathed, and pertinacious, taking a pinch of
snuff betwixt every sentence, which otherwise seemed
interminable--the veteran pleader prosed over all the themes
which had been treated so luminously by Fairford: he quietly and
imperceptibly replaced all the rubbish which the other had
cleared away, and succeeded in restoring the veil of obscurity
and unintelligibility which had for many years darkened the case
of Peebles against Plainstanes; and the matter was once more
hung up by a remit to an accountant, with instruction to report
before answer. So different a result from that which the public
had been led to expect from Alan's speech gave rise to various
speculations.
CHAPTER III
Into what hands soever these leaves may fall, they will instruct
him, during a certain time at least, in the history of the life
of an unfortunate young man, who, in the heart of a free country,
and without any crime being laid to his charge, has been, and is,
subjected to a course of unlawful and violent restraint. He who
opens this letter, is therefore conjured to apply to the nearest
magistrate, and, following such indications as the papers may
afford, to exert himself for the relief of one, who, while he
possesses every claim to assistance which oppressed innocence can
give, has, at the same time, both the inclination and the means
of being grateful to his deliverers. Or, if the person obtaining
these letters shall want courage or means to effect the writer's
release, he is, in that case, conjured, by every duty of a man to
his fellow mortals, and of a Christian towards one who professes
the same holy faith, to take the speediest measures for conveying
them with speed and safety to the hands of Alan Fairford, Esq.,
Advocate, residing in the family of his father, Alexander
Fairford, Esq., Writer to the Signet, Brown's Square, Edinburgh.
He may be assured of a liberal reward, besides the consciousness
of having discharged a real duty to humanity.
MY DEAREST ALAN,
Feeling as warmly towards you in doubt and in distress, as I ever
did in the brightest days of our intimacy, it is to you whom I
address a history which may perhaps fall into very different
hands. A portion of my former spirit descends to my pen when I
write your name, and indulging the happy thought that you may be
my deliverer from my present uncomfortable and alarming
situation, as you have been my guide and counsellor on every
former occasion, I will subdue the dejection which would
otherwise overwhelm me. Therefore, as, Heaven knows, I have time
enough to write, I will endeavour to pour my thoughts out, as
fully and freely as of old, though probably without the same gay
and happy levity.
If the papers should reach other hands than yours, still I will
not regret this exposure of my feelings; for, allowing for an
ample share of the folly incidental to youth and inexperience, I
fear not that I have much to be ashamed of in my narrative; nay,
I even hope that the open simplicity and frankness with which I
am about to relate every singular and distressing circumstance,
may prepossess even a stranger in my favour; and that, amid the
multitude of seemingly trivial circumstances which I detail at
length, a clue may be found to effect my liberation.
Upon the night preceding the date of that letter, I had been
present, for the purpose of an idle frolic, at a dancing party at
the village of Brokenburn, about six miles from Dumfries; many
persons must have seen me there, should the fact appear of
importance sufficient to require investigation. I danced, played
on the violin, and took part in the festivity till about
midnight, when my servant, Samuel Owen, brought me my horses, and
I rode back to a small inn called Shepherd's Bush, kept by Mrs.
Gregson, which had been occasionally my residence for about a
fortnight past. I spent the earlier part of the forenoon in
writing a letter, which I have already mentioned, to you, my dear
Alan, and which, I think, you must have received in safety. Why
did I not follow your advice, so often given me? Why did I
linger in the neighbourhood of a danger, of which a kind voice
had warned me? These are now unavailing questions; I was blinded
by a fatality, and remained, fluttering like a moth around the
candle, until I have been scorched to some purpose.
The greater part of the day had passed, and time hung heavy on my
hands. I ought, perhaps, to blush at recollecting what has been
often objected to me by the dear friend to whom this letter is
addressed, viz. the facility with which I have, in moments of
indolence, suffered my motions to be, directed by any person who
chanced to be near me, instead of taking the labour of thinking
or deciding for myself. I had employed for some time, as a sort
of guide and errand-boy, a lad named Benjamin, the son of one
widow Coltherd, who lives near the Shepherd's Bush, and I cannot
but remember that, upon several occasions, I had of late suffered
him to possess more influence over my motions than at all became
the difference of our age and condition. At present, he exerted
himself to persuade me that it was the finest possible sport to
see the fish taken out from the nets placed in the Solway at the
reflux of the tide, and urged my going thither this evening so
much, that, looking back on the whole circumstances, I cannot but
think he had some especial motive for his conduct. These
particulars I have mentioned, that if these papers fall into
friendly hands, the boy may be sought after and submitted to
examination.
When we had commenced our walk, I upbraided him with the coolness
of the evening, considering the season, the easterly wind, and
other circumstances, unfavourable for angling. He persisted in
his own story, and made a few casts, as if to convince me of my
error, but caught no fish; and, indeed, as I am now convinced,
was much more intent on watching my motions than on taking any.
When I ridiculed him once more on his fruitless endeavours, he
answered with a sneering smile, that 'the trouts would not rise,
because there was thunder in the air;' an intimation which, in
one sense, I have found too true.
'Nay, then,' replied the lady, 'I am but too well assured that
the sons of Belial are menacing these nets and devices. Joshua,
art thou a man of peace, and wilt thou willingly and wittingly
thrust thyself where thou mayst be tempted by the old man Adam
within thee, to enter into debate and strife?'
With these words, he ordered his horse instantly; and his sister,
ceasing to argue with him, folded her arms upon her bosom, and
looked up to heaven with a resigned and yet sorrowful
countenance.
'Nay, Rachel,' said the worthy man, 'thou art to blame in this,
that to quiet thy apprehensions on my account, thou shouldst
thrust into danger--if danger it shall prove to be--this youth,
our guest; for whom, doubtless, in case of mishap, as many hearts
will ache as may be afflicted on our account.'
'No, my good friend,' said I, taking Mr. Geddes's hand, 'I am not
so happy as you suppose me. Were my span to be concluded this
evening, few would so much as know that such a being had existed
for twenty years on the face of the earth; and of these few, only
one would sincerely regret me. Do not, therefore, refuse me the
privilege attending you; and of showing, by so trifling an act of
kindness, that if I have few friends, I am at least desirous to
serve them.'
'No, Master Geddes,' answered he, 'I did not expect you, nor, to
speak the truth, did I wish for you either.'
'I won't, then,' said John; 'no offence meant: But how the devil
can a man stand picking his words, when he is just going to come
to blows?'
'I hope not, John Davies,' said Joshua Geddes. 'Call in the rest
of the men, that I may give them their instructions.'
'I may cry till doomsday Master Geddes, ere a soul answers--the
cowardly lubbers have all made sail--the cooper, and all the rest
of them, so soon as they heard the enemy were at sea. They have
all taken to the long-boat, and left the ship among the breakers,
except little Phil and myself--they have, by--!'
'Why, there are the dogs, your honour knows, Neptune and Thetis
--and the puppy may do something; and then though your worship--I
beg pardon--though your honour be no great fighter, this young
gentleman may bear a hand.'
'Aye, and I see you are provided with arms,' said Mr. Geddes;
'let me see them.'
'Aye, John Davies, I will take care of them, throwing the pistols
into a tub of water beside him; 'and I wish I could render the
whole generation of them useless at the same moment.'
'We will use none but those of sense and reason, John.'
'And you may just as well cast chaff against the wind, as speak
sense and reason to the like of them.'
'Well, well, be it so,' said Joshua; 'and now, John Davies, I
know thou art what the world calls a brave fellow, and I have
ever found thee an honest one. And now I command you to go to
Mount Sharon, and let Phil lie on the bank-side--see the poor boy
hath a sea-cloak, though--and watch what happens there, and let
him bring you the news; and if any violence shall be offered to
the property there, I trust to your fidelity to carry my sister
to Dumfries to the house of our friends the Corsacks, and inform
the civil authorities of what mischief hath befallen.'
The old seaman paused a moment. 'It is hard lines for me,' he
said, 'to leave your honour in tribulation; and yet, staying
here, I am only like to make bad worse; and your honour's sister,
Miss Rachel, must be looked to, that's certain; for if the rogues
once get their hand to mischief, they will come to Mount Sharon
after they have wasted and destroyed this here snug little
roadstead, where I thought to ride at anchor for life.'
'Right, right, John Davies,' said Joshua Geddes; 'and best call
the dogs with you.'
'Aye, aye, sir,' said the veteran, 'for they are something of my
mind, and would not keep quiet if they saw mischief doing; so
maybe they might come to mischief, poor dumb creatures. So God
bless your honour--I mean your worship--I cannot bring my mouth
to say fare you well. Here, Neptune, Thetis! come, dogs, come.'
'Now there goes one of the best and most faithful creatures that
ever was born,' said Mr. Geddes, as the superintendent shut the
door of the cottage. 'Nature made him with a heart that would
not have suffered him to harm a fly; but thou seest, friend
Latimer, that as men arm their bull-dogs with spiked collars, and
their game-cocks with steel spurs, to aid them in fight, so they
corrupt, by education, the best and mildest natures, until
fortitude and spirit become stubbornness and ferocity. Believe
me, friend Latimer, I would as soon expose my faithful household
dog to a vain combat with a herd of wolves, as yon trusty
creature to the violence of the enraged multitude. But I need
say little on this subject to thee, friend Latimer, who, I doubt
not, art trained to believe that courage is displayed and honour
attained, not by doing and suffering as becomes a man that which
fate calls us to suffer and justice commands us to do, but
because thou art ready to retort violence for violence, and
considerest the lightest insult as a sufficient cause for the
spilling of blood, nay, the taking of life. But, leaving these
points of controversy to a more fit season, let us see what our
basket of provision contains; for in truth, friend Latimer, I am
one of those whom neither fear nor anxiety deprives of their
ordinary appetite.'
'We shall be undisturbed for some hours,' said Mr. Geddes; 'they
will not come down upon us: till the state of the tide permits
them to destroy the tide-nets. Is it not strange to think that
human passions will so soon transform such a tranquil scene as
this into one of devastation and confusion?'
The morning was dawning, and Mr. Geddes and I myself were still
sleeping soundly, when the alarm was given by my canine
bedfellow, who first growled deeply at intervals, and at length
bore more decided testimony to the approach of some enemy. I
opened the door of the cottage, and perceived, at the distance of
about two hundred yards, a small but close column of men, which I
would have taken for a dark hedge, but that I could perceive it
was advancing rapidly and in silence.
The dog flew towards them, but instantly ran howling back to me,
having probably been chastised by a stick or a stone. Uncertain
as to the plan of tactics or of treaty which Mr. Geddes might
think proper to adopt, I was about to retire into the cottage,
when he suddenly joined me at the door, and, slipping his arm
through mine, said, 'Let us go to meet them manfully; we have
done nothing to be ashamed of.--Friends,' he said, raising his
voice as we approached them, 'who and what are you, and with what
purpose are you here on my property?'
A loud cheer was the answer returned, and a brace of fiddlers who
occupied the front of the march immediately struck up the
insulting air, the words of which begin--
'Hang up the wet Quaker to dry, and wet the dry one with a
ducking,' answered another voice.
'To fetch down redcoats and dragoons against us, you canting old
villain!'
'I dinna ken what waur your honour could have wished him to do,
unless he had broken his neck; and this is muckle the same to my
hinnie Willie and me. Chaw, indeed! It is easy to say chaw, but
wha is to gie us ony thing to chaw?--the bread-winner's gane, and
we may e'en sit down and starve.'
'No, no,' I said, 'I will pay you for twenty such fiddles.'
'Twenty such! is that a' ye ken about it? the country hadna the
like o't. But if your honour were to pay us, as nae doubt wad be
to your credit here and hereafter, where are ye to get the
siller?'
This hint appeared to move her, and she was approaching the
bedside, as I hoped, to liberate me from my bonds, when a nearer
and more desperate shout was heard, as if the rioters were close
by the hut.
'I daurna I daurna,' said the poor woman, 'they would murder me
and my hinnie Willie baith, and they have misguided us aneugh
already;--but if there is anything worldly I could do for your
honour, leave out loosing ye?'
'Heaven Almighty forbid that Epps Ainslie should gie ony sick
gentleman cauld well-water, and him in a fever. Na, na, hinnie,
let me alane, I'll do better for ye than the like of that.'
'I will slacken the belts,' said the former speaker; 'nay, I will
altogether remove them, and allow you to pursue your journey in a
more convenient manner, provided you will give me your word of
honour that you will not attempt an escape?'
In the meantime, the cart was dragged heavily and wearily on,
until the nearer roar of the advancing tide excited the
apprehension of another danger. I could not mistake the sound,
which I had heard upon another occasion, when it was only the
speed of a fleet horse which saved me from perishing in the
quicksands. Thou, my dear Alan, canst not but remember the
former circumstances; and now, wonderful contrast! the very man,
to the best of my belief, who then saved me from peril, was the
leader of the lawless band who had deprived me of my liberty. I
conjectured that the danger grew imminent; for I heard some words
and circumstances which made me aware that a rider hastily
fastened his own horse to the shafts of the cart in order to
assist the exhausted animal which drew it, and the vehicle was
now pulled forward at a faster pace, which the horses were urged
to maintain by blows and curses. The men, however, were
inhabitants of the neighbourhood; and I had strong personal
reason to believe that one of them, at least, was intimately
acquainted with all the depths and shallows of the perilous paths
in which we were engaged. But they were in imminent danger
themselves; and if so, as from the whispering and exertions to
push on with the cart was much to be apprehended, there was
little doubt that I should be left behind as a useless
encumbrance, and that, while I was in a condition which rendered
every chance of escape impracticable. These were awful
apprehensions; but it pleased Providence to increase them to a
point which my brain was scarcely able to endure.
When I had been thus snatched from destruction, I had only power
to say to my protector,--or oppressor,--for he merited either
name at my hand, 'You do not, then, design to murder me?'
'I will give you earnest directly, and that in banknotes,' said
I; but thrusting my hand into my side-pocket, I found my pocket-
book was gone. I would have persuaded myself that it was only
the numbness of my hands which prevented my finding it; but
Cristal Nixon, who bears in his countenance that cynicism which
is especially entertained with human misery, no longer suppressed
his laughter.
'Oh, ho! my young master,' he said; 'we have taken good enough
care you have not kept the means of bribing poor folk's fidelity.
What, man, they have souls as well as other people, and to make
them break trust is a deadly sin. And as for me, young
gentleman, if you would fill Saint Mary's Kirk with gold, Cristal
Nixon would mind it no more than so many chucky-stones.'
CHAPTER V
Two or three days, perhaps more, perhaps less, had been spent in
bed, where I was carefully attended, and treated, I believe, with
as much judgement as the case required, and I was at length
allowed to quit my bed, though not the chamber. I was now more
able to make some observation on the place of my confinement.
----
'O Lord, sir!' answered the girl, turning pale, which they
always do when I show any sparks of anger, 'Don't put yourself in
a passion--I'll put the letter in the post.
'What! and not know the name of the post-town?' said I, out of
patience. 'How on earth do you propose to manage that?'
'La you there, good master. What need you frighten a poor girl
that is no schollard, bating what she learned at the Charity
School of Saint Bees?'
'Is Saint Bees far from this place, Dorcas? Do you send your
letters there?' said I, in a manner as insinuating, and yet
careless, as I could assume.
'Ah, your honour,' sighed Dorcas, 'he is the man to serve your
honour well--if ever you should get round again--or thof you were
a bit off the hooks, he would no more cheat you than'--
'Well, well, we will deal, my girl, you may depend on't. But
tell me now, were I to give you a letter, what would you do to
get it forward?'
'Why, put it into Squire's own bag that hangs in hall,' answered
poor Dorcas. 'What else could I do? He sends it to Brampton, or
to Carloisle, or where it pleases him, once a week, and that
gate.'
'It was most abominable in Jan, and what I could never have
thought of him,' I replied.
'Well, well, my pretty May, you will get a handsomer fellow than
Jan--Jan's not the fellow for you, I see that.'
'Noa, noa,' answered the damsel; 'but he is weel aneugh for a'
that, mon. But I carena a button for him; for there is the
miller's son, that suitored me last Appleby Fair, when I went wi'
oncle, is a gway canny lad as you will see in the sunshine.'
'Aye, marry does he, an tou comest to that, mon; only it takes
him four hours to write as mony lines. Tan, it is a great round
hand loike, that one can read easily, and not loike your
honour's, that are like midge's taes. But for ganging to
Carloisle, he's dead foundered, man, as cripple as Eckie's mear.'
'In the name of God,' said I, 'how is it that you propose to get
my letter to the post?'
'Does not the Squire usually look into his letter-bag, Dorcas?'
said I, with as much indifference as I could assume.
As she unlocked the door to leave the apartment, she turned back,
and looking on me with a strong expression of compassion, added
the remarkable words, 'La--be'st mad or no, thou'se a mettled
lad, after all.'
Perhaps this letter was expressed in a tone too humble for the
situation of an injured man, and I am inclined to think so when I
again recapitulate its tenor. But what could I do? I was in the
power of one whose passions seem as violent as his means of
gratifying them appear unbounded. I had reason, too, to believe
(this to thee, Alan) that all his family did not approve of the
violence of his conduct towards me; my object, in fine, was
freedom, and who would not sacrifice much to attain it?
CHAPTER VI
'You have desired to see me,' he said. 'I am here; if you have
aught to say let me hear it; my time is too brief to be consumed
in childish dumb-show.'
'You shall see more,' he said; 'you shall see the magistrate by
whom it is granted, and that without a moment's delay.'
I used the permission given, for I had been much more reduced by
my illness than I was aware of, and felt myself really fatigued,
even by the few paces I had walked, joined to the agitation I
suffered.
'Darsie Latimer.'
'Right--aye--yes, you are so. But pray, Mr. Darsie Latimer, have
you always been called by that name, or have you any other?--
Nick, write down his answers, Nick.'
'How, no? well, I should not have thought so, Hey, neighbour,
would you?'
Here he looked towards the other squire, who had thrown himself
into a chair; and, with his legs stretched out before him, and
his arms folded on his bosom, seemed carelessly attending to what
was going forward. He answered the appeal of the Justice by
saying, that perhaps the young man's memory did not go back to a
very early period.
'And will you presume to say, sir,' said the squire, drawing
himself suddenly erect in his seat, and exerting the strength of
his powerful voice, 'that you then bore your present name?'
'So you were called Darsie in your infancy,' said the Justice;
'and--hum--aye--when did you first take the name of Latimer?'
'I ask you,' said the lord of the mansion, but with less severity
in his voice than formerly, 'whether you can remember that you
were ever called Latimer, until you had that name given you in
Scotland?'
This was galling a wound that has festered for years, and I did
not endure the question so patiently as those which preceded it;
but replied, 'I demand, in my turn, to know if I am before an
English Justice of the Peace?'
'It is out of my power, sir; they are not known to me, since you
must needs know so much of my private affairs.'
The time occupied by his worship's hums, and haws, and puffs of
tobacco smoke, together with the slow and pompous manner in which
he spoke, gave me a minute's space to collect my ideas, dispersed
as they were by the extraordinary purport of this annunciation.
'I know nothing of him,' I repeated; 'not even his name; and I
have not, as I told you, seen him in the course of my whole life,
till a few weeks since.'
'Will you swear to that?' said the singular man, who seemed to
await the result of this debate, secure as a rattle-snake is of
the prey which has once felt its fascination. And while he said
these words in deep undertone, he withdrew his chair a little
behind that of the Justice, so as to be unseen by him or his
clerk, who sat upon the same side; while he bent on me a frown so
portentous, that no one who has witnessed the look can forget it
during the whole of his life. The furrows of the brow above the
eyes became livid and almost black, and were bent into a
semicircular, or rather elliptical form, above the junction of
the eyebrows. I had heard such a look described in an old tale
of DIABLERIE, which it was my chance to be entertained with not
long since; when this deep and gloomy contortion of the frontal
muscles was not unaptly described as forming the representation
of a small horseshoe.
'He is cuome post on his ten toes,' said the wench; 'and on
justice business to his worship loike. I'se uphald him a
gentleman, for he speaks as good Latin as the schule-measter;
but, lack-a-day! he has gotten a queer mop of a wig.'
Sheet 2.
I have rarely in my life, till the last alarming days, known what
it was to sustain a moment's real sorrow. What I called such,
was, I am now well convinced, only the weariness of mind which,
having nothing actually present to complain of, turns upon itself
and becomes anxious about the past and the future; those periods
with which human life has so little connexion, that Scripture
itself hath said, 'Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.'
Even when I saw the spectral form of the old scarecrow of the
Parliament House rush into the apartment where I had undergone so
singular an examination, I thought of thy connexion with him, and
could almost have parodied Lear--
'Gude day to ye, gude day to your honours. Is't here they sell
the fugie warrants?'
I observed that on his entrance, my friend--or enemy--drew
himself back, and placed himself as if he would rather avoid
attracting the observation of the new-comer. I did the same
myself, as far as I was able; for I thought it likely that Mr.
Peebles might recognize me, as indeed I was too frequently among
the group of young juridical aspirants who used to amuse
themselves by putting cases for Peter's solution, and playing him
worse tricks; yet I was uncertain whether I had better avail
myself of our acquaintance to have the advantage, such as it
might be, of his evidence before the magistrate, or whether to
make him, if possible, bearer of a letter which might procure me
more effectual assistance. I resolved, therefore, to be guided
by circumstances, and to watch carefully that nothing might
escape me. I drew back as far as I could, and even reconnoitred
the door and passage, to consider whether absolute escape might
not be practicable. But there paraded Cristal Nixon, whose
little black eyes, sharp as those of a basilisk, seemed, the
instant when they encountered mine, to penetrate my purpose.
'And what has this drunken young dog of a lawyer done to you,
that you are come to me--eh--ha? Has he robbed you? Not
unlikely if he be a lawyer--eh--Nick--ha?' said Justice Foxley.
'He has robbed me of himself, sir,' answered Peter; 'of his help,
comfort, aid, maintenance, and assistance, whilk, as a counsel to
a client, he is bound to yield me RATIONE OFFICII--that is it, ye
see. He has pouched my fee, and drucken a mutchkin of brandy,
and now he's ower the march, and left my cause, half won half
lost--as dead a heat as e'er was run ower the back-sands. Now, I
was advised by some cunning laddies that are used to crack a bit
law wi' me in the House, that the best thing I could do was to
take heart o' grace and set out after him; so I have taken post
on my ain shanks, forby a cast in a cart, or the like. I got
wind of him in Dumfries, and now I have run him ower to the
English side, and I want a fugie warrant against him.'
'And what for no?' answered Peter Peebles, doggedly; 'what for
no, I would be glad to ken? If a day's labourer refuse to work,
ye'll grant a warrant to gar him do out his daurg--if a wench
quean rin away from her hairst, ye'll send her back to her heuck
again--if sae mickle as a collier or a salter make a moonlight
flitting, ye will cleek him by the back-spaul in a minute of
time--and yet the damage canna amount to mair than a creelfu' of
coals, and a forpit or twa of saut; and here is a chield taks leg
from his engagement, and damages me to the tune of sax thousand
punds sterling; that is, three thousand that I should win, and
three thousand mair that I am like to lose; and you that ca'
yourself a justice canna help a poor man to catch the rinaway? A
bonny like justice I am like to get amang ye!'
'Black fasting from all but sin,' replied the supplicant; 'I
havena had mair than a mouthful of cauld water since I passed the
Border, and deil a ane of ye is like to say to me, "Dog, will ye
drink?"'
'I winna refuse your neighbourly offer,' said Poor Peter Peebles,
making his bow; 'muckle grace be wi' your honour, and wisdom to
guide you in this extraordinary cause.'
When I saw Peter Peebles about to retire from the room, I could
not forbear an effort to obtain from him such evidence as might
give me some credit with the Justice. I stepped forward,
therefore, and, saluting him, asked him if he remembered me?
'A pretty witness you have brought forward in your favour,' said
Mr. Foxley. 'But--ha--aye---I'll ask him a question or two.
Pray, friend, will you take your oath to this youth being a
runaway apprentice?'
'Sir,' said Peter, 'I will make oath to onything in reason; when
a case comes to my oath it's a won cause: But I am in some
haste to prie your worship's good cheer;' for Peter had become
much more respectful in his demeanour towards the Justice since
he had heard some intimation of dinner.
'Just Fifish,' replied Peter; 'wowf--a wee bit by the East Nook
or sae; it's a common case--the ae half of the warld thinks the
tither daft. I have met with folk in my day that thought I was
daft mysell; and, for my part, I think our Court of Session clean
daft, that have had the great cause of Peebles against
Plainstanes before them for this score of years, and have never
been able to ding the bottom out of it yet.'
'I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue,' said the
Cumbrian justice; 'can you, neighbour--eh? What can he mean by
DEFT?'
'He means MAD,' said the party appealed to, thrown off his guard
by impatience of this protracted discussion.
'Ye have it--ye have it,' said Peter; 'that is, not clean skivie,
but--'
'I believe you are mistaken, friend,' said Herries, sternly, with
whose name and designation I was thus made unexpectedly
acquainted.
'I tell you, fellow,' said Herries, yet more fiercely, 'you have
confused me with some of the other furniture of your crazy pate.'
with which the poet has invested the detected King of the powers
of the air.
'But you have given both, sir,' said Nicholas Faggot, the clerk,
who, having some petty provincial situation, as I have since
understood, deemed himself bound to be zealous for government,
'Mr. Justice Foxley cannot be answerable for letting you pass
free, now your name and surname have been spoken plainly out.
There are warrants out against you from the Secretary of State's
office.'
'And were I to receive such advice,' said Herries, with the same
composure as before--'putting the case, as you say, Mr. Faggot--I
should request to see the warrant which countenanced such a
scandalous proceeding.'
'But you do not deny that you are Mr. Herries of Birrenswork,
mentioned in the Secretary of State's warrant?' said Mr. Foxley.
'How can I deny or own anything about it?' said Herries, with a
sneer. 'There is no such warrant in existence now; its ashes,
like the poor traitor whose doom it threatened, have been
dispersed to the four winds of heaven. There is now no warrant
in the world.'
'But you will not deny,' said the Justice, 'that you were the
person named in it; and that--eh--your own act destroyed it?'
The cold and ironical tone in which he made this declaration; the
look and attitude, so nobly expressive of absolute confidence in
his own superior strength and energy, seemed to complete the
indecision which had already shown itself on the side of those
whom he addressed.
'Why,' said the Justice, rubbing his brow, 'our business has
been--hem--rather a thirsty one.'
'Young man,' said Mr. Justice Foxley, 'I would have you remember
you are under the power, the lawful power--ahem--of your
guardian.'
The clerk imitated the example of his principal, and I was fain
to follow their example, for anxiety and fear are at least as
thirsty as sorrow is said to be. In a word, we exhausted the
composition of ale, sherry, lemon-juice, nutmeg, and other good
things, stranded upon the silver bottom of the tankard the huge
toast, as well as the roasted orange, which had whilom floated
jollily upon the brim, and rendered legible Dr. Byrom's
celebrated lines engraved thereon--
When this was arranged, the party took leave of each other with
much formality on the part of Squire Foxley, amongst whose adieus
the following phrase was chiefly remarkable: 'I presume you do
not intend to stay long in these parts?'
'Not for the present, Justice, you may be sure; there are good
reasons to the contrary. But I have no doubt of arranging my
affairs so that we shall speedily have sport together again.'
CHAPTER VIII
That men should be found rash enough to throw away their services
and lives in a desperate cause, is nothing new in history, which
abounds with instances of similar devotion--that Mr. Herries is
such an enthusiast is no less evident; but all this explains not
his conduct towards me. Had he sought to make me a proselyte to
his ruined cause, violence and compulsion were arguments very
unlikely to prevail with any generous spirit. But even if such
were his object, of what use to him could be the acquisition of a
single reluctant partisan, who could bring only his own person to
support any quarrel which he might adopt? He had claimed over me
the rights of a guardian; he had more than hinted that I was in a
state of mind which could not dispense with the authority of such
a person. Was this man, so sternly desperate in his purpose--he
who seemed willing to take on his own shoulders the entire
support of a cause which had been ruinous to thousands--was he
the person that had the power of deciding on my fate? Was it
from him those dangers flowed, to secure me against which I had
been educated under such circumstances of secrecy and precaution?
And if this was so, of what nature was the claim which he
asserted?--Was it that of propinquity? And did I share the
blood, perhaps the features, of this singular being?--Strange as
it may seem, a thrill of awe, which shot across my mind at that
instant, was not unmingled with a wild and mysterious feeling of
wonder, almost amounting to pleasure. I remembered the
reflection of my own face in the mirror at one striking moment
during the singular interview of the day, and I hastened to the
outward apartment to consult a glass which hung there, whether it
were possible for my countenance to be again contorted into the
peculiar frown which so much resembled the terrific look of
Herries. But I folded my brows in vain into a thousand
complicated wrinkles, and I was obliged to conclude, either that
the supposed mark on my brow was altogether imaginary, or that it
could not be called forth by voluntary effort; or, in fine, what
seemed most likely, that it was such a resemblance as the
imagination traces in the embers of a wood fire, or among the
varied veins of marble, distinct at one time, and obscure or
invisible at another, according as the combination of lines
strikes the eye or impresses the fancy.
The girl started back, with her 'Don't ya look so now--don't ye,
for love's sake--you be as like the ould squoire as--But here a
comes,' she said, huddling away out of the room; 'and if you want
a third, there is none but ould Harry, as I know of, that can
match ye for a brent broo!'
'Mysterious man,' I replied, 'I know not of what you speak; your
language is as dark as your purposes!'
'Sit down, then,' he said, 'and listen; thus far, at least, must
the veil of which you complain be raised. When withdrawn, it
will only display guilt and sorrow--guilt followed by strange
penalty, and sorrow which Providence has entailed upon the
posterity of the mourners.'
'It was not of late years that the English learned that their
best chance of conquering their independent neighbours must be by
introducing amongst them division and civil war. You need not be
reminded of the state of thraldom to which Scotland was reduced
by the unhappy wars betwixt the domestic factions of Bruce and
Baliol, nor how, after Scotland had been emancipated from a
foreign yoke by the conduct and valour of the immortal Bruce, the
whole fruits of the triumphs of Bannockburn were lost in the
dreadful defeats of Dupplin and Halidon; and Edward Baliol, the
minion and feudatory of his namesake of England, seemed, for a
brief season, in safe and uncontested possession of the throne so
lately occupied by the greatest general and wisest prince in
Europe. But the experience of Bruce had not died with him.
There were many who had shared his martial labours, and all
remembered the successful efforts by which, under circumstances
as disadvantageous as those of his son, he had achieved the
liberation of Scotland.
'But the delicacy and deep interest of his wife's condition did
not prevent Alberick from engaging in the undertaking of Douglas
and Moray. He had been the most forward in the attack of the
castle, and was now foremost in the pursuit of Baliol, eagerly
engaged in dispersing or cutting down the few daring followers
who endeavoured to protect the usurper in his flight.
'Redgauntlet beheld his son lying before his horse's feet; but he
also saw Baliol, the usurper of the Scottish crown, still, as it
seemed, within his grasp, and separated from him only by the
prostrate body of his overthrown adherent. Without pausing to
inquire whether young Edward was wounded, he dashed his spurs
into his horse, meaning to leap over him, but was unhappily
frustrated in his purpose. The steed made indeed a bound
forward, but was unable to clear the body of the youth, and with
its hind foot struck him in the forehead, as he was in the act of
rising. The blow was mortal. It is needless to add, that the
pursuit was checked, and Baliol escaped.
'And has the fatal sign,' said I, when Herries had ended his
narrative, 'descended on all the posterity of this unhappy
house?'
He continued to pace the room after this speech, with folded arms
and downcast looks; and the sound of his steps and tone of his
voice brought to my remembrance, that I had heard this singular
person, when I met him on a former occasion, uttering such
soliloquies in his solitary chamber. I observed that, like other
Jacobites, in his inveteracy against the memory of King William,
he had adopted the party opinion, that the monarch, on the day he
had his fatal accident, rode upon a horse once the property of
the unfortunate Sir John Friend, executed for high treason in
1698.
This was speaking out indeed, and I did not allow him to go
unanswered. 'You threaten me in vain,' said I; 'the laws of my
country will protect me; or whom they cannot protect, they will
avenge.'
I spoke this firmly, and he seemed for a moment silenced; and the
scorn with which he at last answered me, had something of
affectation in it.
'As much,' said I, 'and as little; for you can neither estimate
their real worth nor mine. I know you saw them when last in
Edinburgh.'
'If you learned this,' said I, 'from the papers which were about
my person on the night when I was under the necessity of becoming
your guest at Brokenburn, I do not envy your indifference to the
means of acquiring information. It was dishonourable to'--
'Peace, young man,' said Herries, more calmly than I might have
expected; 'the word dishonour must not be mentioned as in
conjunction with my name. Your pocket-book was in the pocket of
your coat, and did not escape the curiosity of another, though it
would have been sacred from mine, My servant, Cristal Nixon,
brought me the intelligence after you were gone. I was
displeased with the manner in which he had acquired his
information; but it was not the less my duty to ascertain its
truth, and for that purpose I went to Edinburgh. I was in hopes
to persuade Mr. Fairford to have entered into my views; but I
found him too much prejudiced to permit me to trust him. He is a
wretched, yet a timid slave of the present government, under
which our unhappy country is dishonourably enthralled; and it
would have been altogether unfit and unsafe to have entrusted him
with the secret either of the right which I possess to direct
your actions, or of the manner in which I purpose to exercise
it.'
'Do not grieve for that,' said Herries; 'honest Joshua is one of
those who, by dint of long prayers, can possess themselves of
widow's houses--he will quickly repair his losses. When he
sustains any mishap, he and the other canters set it down as a
debt against Heaven, and, by way of set-off, practise rogueries
without compunction, till the they make the balance even, or
incline it to the winning side. Enough of this for the present.
--I must immediately shift my quarters; for, although I do not
fear the over-zeal of Mr. Justice Foxley or his clerk will lead
them to any extreme measure, yet that mad scoundrel's unhappy
recognition of me may make it more serious for them to connive at
me, and I must not put their patience to an over severe trial.
You must prepare to attend me, either as a captive or a
companion; if as the latter, you must give your parole of honour
to attempt no escape. Should you be so ill advised as to break
your word once pledged, be assured that I will blow your brains
out without a moment's scruple.'
'Oh, I can read the book,' he said, 'without opening the leaves.
But I would recommend to you to make no rash attempt, and it will
be my care to see that you have no power to make any that is
likely to be effectual. Linen, and all other necessaries for one
in your circumstances, are amply provided, Cristal Nixon will act
as your valet,--I should rather, perhaps, say, your FEMME DE
CHAMBRE. Your travelling dress you may perhaps consider as
singular; but it is such as the circumstances require; and, if
you object to use the articles prepared for your use, your mode
of journeying will be as personally unpleasant as that which
conducted you hither.--Adieu--We now know each other better than
we did--it will not be my fault if the consequences of further
intimacy be not a more favourable mutual opinion.'
We are then at issue, this singular man and myself. His personal
views are to a certain point explained. He has chosen an
antiquated and desperate line of politics, and he claims, from
some pretended tie of guardianship or relationship, which he does
not deign to explain but which he seems to have been able to pass
current on a silly country Justice and his knavish clerk, a right
to direct and to control my motions. The danger which awaited me
in England, and which I might have escaped had I remained in
Scotland, was doubtless occasioned by the authority of this man.
But what my poor mother might fear for me as a child--what my
English friend, Samuel Griffiths, endeavoured to guard against
during my youth and nonage, is now, it seems, come upon me; and,
under a legal pretext, I am detained in what must be a most
illegal manner, by a person, foe, whose own political immunities
have been forfeited by his conduct. It matters not--my mind is
made up neither persuasion nor threats shall force me into the
desperate designs which this man meditates. Whether I am of the
trifling consequence which my life hitherto seems to intimate, or
whether I have (as would appear from my adversary's conduct) such
importance, by birth or fortune, as may make me a desirable
acquisition to a political faction, my resolution is taken in
either case. Those who read this journal, if it shall be perused
by impartial eyes, shall judge of me truly; and if they consider
me as a fool in encountering danger unnecessarily, they shall
have no reason to believe me a coward or a turncoat, when I find
myself engaged in it. I have been bred in sentiments of
attachment to the family on the throne and in these sentiments I
will live and die. I have, indeed, some idea that Mr. Herries
has already discovered that I am made of different and more
unmalleable metal than he had at first believed. There were
letters from my dear Alan Fairford, giving a ludicrous account of
my instability of temper, in the same pocket-book, which,
according to the admission of my pretended guardian, fell under
the investigation of his domestic during the night I passed at
Brokenburn, where, as I now recollect, my wet clothes, with the
contents of my pockets, were, with the thoughtlessness of a young
traveller, committed too rashly to the care of a strange servant.
And my kind friend and hospitable landlord, Mr. Alexander
Fairford, may also, and with justice, have spoken of my levities
to this man. But he shall find he has made a false estimate upon
these plausible grounds, since--
CHAPTER IX
Hope will catch at the most feeble twig for support in extremity.
I knew this man, though deprived of sight, to be bold, ingenious,
and perfectly capable of acting as a guide. I believed I had won
his goodwill, by having, in a frolic, assumed the character of
his partner; and I remembered that in a wild, wandering, and
disorderly course of life, men, as they become loosened from the
ordinary bonds of civil society, hold those of comradeship more
closely sacred; so that honour is sometimes found among thieves,
and faith and attachment in such as the law has termed vagrants.
The history of Richard Coeur de Lion and his minstrel, Blondel,
rushed, at the same time, on my mind, though I could not even
then suppress a smile at the dignity of the example when applied
to a blind fiddler and myself. Still there was something in all
this to awaken a hope that, if I could open a correspondence with
this poor violer, he might be useful in extricating me from my
present situation.
'If thou canst play no other spring but that, mon, ho hadst best
put up ho's pipes and be jogging. Squoire will be back anon, or
Master Nixon, and we'll see who will pay poiper then.'
His reply was almost immediate, and was conveyed in the old
martial air of 'Hey, Johnnie lad, cock up your beaver.' I ran
over the words, and fixed on the following stanza, as most
applicable to my circumstances:--
The manner in which G.M. entered upon the scene for the first
time, seems to assure me of her goodwill, so far as her power may
reach; and I have many reasons to believe it is considerable.
Yet she seemed hurried and frightened during the very transitory
moments of our interview, and I think was, upon the last
occasion, startled by the entrance of some one into the farmyard,
just as she was on the point of addressing me. You must not ask
whether I am an early riser, since such objects are only to be
seen at daybreak; and although I have never again seen her, yet I
have reason to think she is not distant. It was but three nights
ago, that, worn out by the uniformity of my confinement, I had
manifested more symptoms of despondence than I had before
exhibited, which I conceive may have attracted the attention of
the domestics, through whom the circumstance might transpire. On
the next morning, the following lines lay on my table; but how
conveyed there, I cannot tell. The hand in which they were
written is a beautiful Italian manuscript:--
This apparatus, together with a steel clasp for securing the mask
behind me with a padlock, gave me fearful recollections of the
unfortunate being, who, never being permitted to lay aside such a
visor, acquired the well-known historical epithet of the Man in
the Iron Mask. I hesitated a moment whether I should, so far
submit to the acts of oppression designed against me as to assume
this disguise, which was, of course, contrived to aid their
purposes. But when I remembered Mr. Herries's threat, that I
should be kept close prisoner in a carriage, unless I assumed the
dress which should be appointed for me; and I considered the
comparative degree of freedom which I might purchase by wearing
the mask and female dress as easily and advantageously purchased.
Here, therefore, I must pause for the present, and await what the
morning may bring forth.
[To carry on the story from the documents before us, we think it
proper here to drop the journal of the captive Darsie Latimer,
and adopt, instead, a narrative of the proceedings of Alan
Fairford in pursuit of his friend, which forms another series in
this history.]
CHAPTER X
The reader ought, by this time, to have formed some idea of the
character of Alan Fairford. He had a warmth of heart which the
study of the law and of the world could not chill, and talents
which they had rendered unusually acute. Deprived of the
personal patronage enjoyed by most of his contemporaries, who
assumed the gown under the protection of their aristocratic
alliances and descents, he early saw that he should have that to
achieve for himself which fell to them as a right of birth. He
laboured hard in silence and solitude, and his labours were
crowned with success. But Alan doted on his friend Darsie, even
more than he loved his profession, and, as we have seen, threw
everything aside when he thought Latimer in danger; forgetting
fame and fortune, and hazarding even the serious displeasure of
his father, to rescue him whom he loved with an elder brother's
affection. Darsie, though his parts were more quick and
brilliant than those of his friend, seemed always to the latter a
being under his peculiar charge, whom he was called upon to
cherish and protect in cases where the youth's own experience was
unequal to the exigency; and now, when, the fate of Latimer
seeming worse than doubtful, Alan's whole prudence and energy
were to be exerted in his behalf, an adventure which might have
seemed perilous to most youths of his age had no terrors for him.
He was well acquainted with the laws of his country, and knew how
to appeal to them; and, besides his professional confidence, his
natural disposition was steady, sedate, persevering, and
undaunted. With these requisites he undertook a quest which, at
that time, was not unattended with actual danger, and had much in
it to appal a more timid disposition.
'But this is not all, Provost Crosbie,' said Mr. Alan Fairford;
'A young gentleman of rank and fortune has disappeared amongst
their hands--you know him. My father gave him a letter to you--
Mr. Darsie Latimer.'
'Troth, yes, and that is true,' said the provost. 'But did he
not go back to his friends in Scotland? it was not natural to
think he would stay here.'
'Rely on it, sir,' said Mr. Crosbie, 'that if he has not returned
to his friends in Scotland, he must have gone to his friends in
England.'
'I will rely on no such thing,' said Alan; 'if there is law or
justice in Scotland, I will have the thing cleared to the very
bottom.'
'True, very true--that is,' said the cautious magistrate, 'I will
not say but my name may stand on the list, but I cannot remember
that I have ever qualified.' [By taking the oaths to
government.]
'God forbid, Mr. Fairford! I who have done and suffered in the
Forty-five. I reckon the Highlandmen did me damage to the amount
of 100l. Scots, forby all they ate and drank--no, no, sir, I
stand beyond challenge; but as for plaguing myself with county
business, let them that aught the mare shoe the mare. The
commissioners of supply would see my back broken before they
would help me in the burgh's work, and all the world kens the
difference of the weight between public business in burgh and
landward. What are their riots to me? have we not riots enough
of our own?--But I must be getting ready, for the council meets
this forenoon. I am blithe to see your father's son on the
causeway of our ancient burgh, Mr. Alan Fairford. Were you a
twelve-month aulder, we would make a burgess of you, man. I hope
you will come and dine with me before you go away. What think
you of to-day at two o'clock--just a roasted chucky and a drappit
egg?'
The withers of the provost were not unwrung; he paced the room in
much tribulation, repeating, 'But what can I do, Mr. Fairford? I
warrant your friend casts up again--he will come back again, like
the ill shilling--he is not the sort of gear that tynes--a
hellicat boy, running through the country with a blind fiddler
and playing the fiddle to a parcel of blackguards, who can tell
where the like of him may have scampered to?'
'Aye, aye--easy said; but catch them that can,' answered the
provost; 'they are ower the march by this time, or by the point
of Cairn.--Lord help ye! they are a kind of amphibious deevils,
neither land nor water beasts neither English nor Scots--neither
county nor stewartry, as we say--they are dispersed like so much
quicksilver. You may as well try to whistle a sealgh out of the
Solway, as to get hold of one of them till all the fray is over.'
'Mr. Crosbie, this will not do,' answered the young counsellor;
'there is a person of more importance than such wretches as you
describe concerned in this unhappy business--I must name to you a
certain Mr. Herries.'
'Of Birrenswork?' said Mr. Crosbie; 'I have you now, Mr. Alan.
Could you not as well have said, the Laird of Redgauntlet?'
The cautious provost only nodded, and said, 'You may guess,
therefore, why it is so convenient he should hold his mother's
name, which is also partly his own, when he is about Edinburgh.
To bear his proper name might be accounted a kind of flying in
the face of government, ye understand. But he has been long
connived at--the story is an old story--and the gentleman has
many excellent qualities, and is of a very ancient and honourable
house--has cousins among the great folk--counts kin with the
advocate and with the sheriff--hawks, you know, Mr. Alan, will
not pike out hawks' een--he is widely connected--my wife is a
fourth cousin of Redgauntlet's.'
'Mr. Fairford,' said the provost, very earnestly, 'I scarce think
such a mistake possible; or if, by any extraordinary chance, it
should have taken place, Redgauntlet, whom I cannot but know
well, being as I have said my wife's first cousin (fourth cousin,
I should say) is altogether incapable of doing anything harsh to
the young gentleman--he might send him ower to Ailsay for a night
or two, or maybe land him on the north coast of Ireland, or in
Islay, or some of the Hebrides; but depend upon it, he is
incapable of harming a hair of his head.'
'Weel, sir,' said the provost, 'since so it be, and since you say
that you do not seek to harm Redgauntlet personally, I'll ask a
man to dine with us to-day that kens as much about his matters as
most folk. You must think, Mr. Alan Fairford, though Redgauntlet
be my wife's near relative, and though, doubtless, I wish him
weel, yet I am not the person who is like to be intrusted with
his incomings and outgoings. I am not a man for that--I keep the
kirk, and I abhor Popery--I have stood up for the House of
Hanover, and for liberty and property--I carried arms, sir,
against the Pretender, when three of the Highlandmen's baggage-
carts were stopped at Ecclefechan; and I had an especial loss of
a hundred pounds'--
'Granted again,' said Fairford. 'And pray who may this third
person be?'
'No, no,' answered the provost--'I am only sorry for folks losing
the tenderness of conscience which they used to have. I have a
son breeding to the bar, Mr. Fairford; and, no doubt, considering
my services and sufferings, I might have looked for some bit
postie to him; but if the muckle tykes come in--I mean a' these
Maxwells, and Johnstones, and great lairds, that the oaths used
to keep out lang syne--the bits o' messan doggies, like my son,
and maybe like your father's son, Mr. Alan, will be sair put to
the wall.'
'It's very like he may be, for he is the tongue of the trump to
the whole squad of them,' said the provost; 'and Redgauntlet,
though he will not stick at times to call him a fool, takes more
of his counsel than any man's else that I am aware of. If Fate
can bring him to a communing, the business is done. He's a sharp
chield, Pate-in-Peril.'
'Aye, and it was in as queer a way he got it; but I'll say
naething about that,' said the provost, 'for fear of forestalling
his market; for ye are sure to hear it once at least, however
oftener, before the punch-bowl gives place to the teapot.--And
now, fare ye weel; for there is the council-bell clinking in
earnest; and if I am not there before it jows in, Bailie Laurie
will be trying some of his manoeuvres.'
This was all that Fairford could learn from Miss Geddes; but he
heard with pleasure that the good Quaker, her brother, had many
friends among those of his own profession in Cumberland, and
without exposing himself to so much danger as his sister seemed
to apprehend, he trusted he might be able to discover some traces
of Darsie Latimer. He himself rode back to Dumfries, having left
with Miss Geddes his direction in that place, and an earnest
request that she would forward thither whatever information she
might obtain from her brother.
CHAPTER XI
Five minutes had elapsed after the town clock struck two,
before Alan Fairford, who had made a small detour to put his
letter into the post-house, reached the mansion of Mr. Provost
Crosbie, and was at once greeted by the voice of that civic
dignitary, and the rural dignitary his visitor, as by the voices
of men impatient for their dinner.
And, 'Come away, young gentleman,' said the laird; 'I remember your
father weel at the Cross thirty years ago--I reckon you are as
late in Edinburgh as at London, four o'clock hours--eh?'
'Can they not buy our own Scottish manufactures, and pick their
customers pockets in a more patriotic manner?'
'Can they not busk the plaid over their heads, as their mothers
did? A tartan screen, and once a year a new cockernony from
Paris, should serve a countess. But ye have not many of them
left, I think--Mareschal, Airley, Winton, Vemyss, Balmerino, all
passed and gone--aye, aye, the countesses and ladies of quality
will scarce take up too much of your ball-room floor with their
quality hoops nowadays.'
It was even so. Mrs. Crosbie had been absent, like Eve, 'on
hospitable cares intent,' a duty which she did not conceive
herself exempted from, either by the dignity of her husband's
rank in the municipality, or the splendour of her Brussels silk
gown, or even by the more highly prized lustre of her birth; for
she was born a Maxwell, and allied, as her husband often informed
his friends, to several of the first families in the county. She
had been handsome, and was still a portly, good-looking woman of
her years; and though her peep into the kitchen had somewhat
heightened her complexion, it was no more than a modest touch of
rouge might have done.
The provost was certainly proud of his lady, nay, some said he
was afraid of her; for of the females of the Redgauntlet family
there went a rumour, that, ally where they would, there was a
grey mare as surely in the stables of their husbands, as there is
a white horse in Wouvermans' pictures. The good dame, too, was
supposed to have brought a spice of politics into Mr. Crosbie's
household along with her; and the provost's enemies at the
council-table of the burgh used to observe that he uttered there
many a bold harangue against the Pretender, and in favour of King
George and government, of which he dared not have pronounced a
syllable in his own bedchamber; and that, in fact, his wife's
predominating influence had now and then occasioned his acting,
or forbearing to act, in a manner very different from his general
professions of zeal for Revolution principles. If this was in
any respect true, it was certain, on the other hand, that Mrs.
Crosbie, in all external points, seemed to acknowledge the
'lawful sway and right supremacy' of the head of the house, and
if she did not in truth reverence her husband, she at least
seemed to do so.
Fairford was glad when the cloth was withdrawn; and when Provost
Crosbie (not without some points of advice from his lady touching
the precise mixture of the ingredients) had accomplished the
compounding of a noble bowl of punch, at which the old Jacobite's
eyes seemed to glisten, the glasses were pushed round it, filled,
and withdrawn each by its owner, when the provost emphatically
named the toast, 'The King,' with an important look to Fairford,
which seemed to say, You can have no doubt whom I mean, and
therefore there is no occasion to particularize the individual.
'Come, come,' said the lady, 'we will have no argument in this
house about Whig or Tory--the provost kens what he maun SAY, and
I ken what he should THINK; and for a' that has come and gane
yet, there may be a time coming when honest men may say what they
think, whether they be provosts or not.'
'D'ye hear that, provost?' said Summertrees; 'your wife's a
witch, man; you should nail a horseshoe on your chamber door--Ha,
ha, ha!'
This sally did not take quite so well as former efforts of the
laird's wit. The lady drew up, and the provost said, half aside,
'The sooth bourd is nae bourd. [The true joke is no joke.] You
will find the horseshoe hissing hot, Summertrees.'
'And good reason ye have, that are sae sib to them,' quoth the
lady, 'and kend weel baith them that are here, and them that are
gane.'
'In troth, and ye may say sae, madam,' answered the laird; 'for
poor Harry Redgauntlet, that suffered at Carlisle, was hand and
glove with me; and yet we parted on short leave-taking.'
'Aye, Summertrees,' said the provost; 'that was when you played
Cheat-the-woodie, and gat the by-name of Pate-in-Peril. I wish
you would tell the story to my young friend here. He likes weel
to hear of a sharp trick, as most lawyers do.'
'I hope,' said the lady, 'you are not afraid of anything being
said out of this house to your prejudice, Summertrees? I have
heard the story before; but the oftener I hear it, the more
wonderful I think it.'
'Yes, madam; but it has been now a wonder of more than nine days,
and it is time it should be ended,' answered Maxwell.
'Weel, weel,' said the provost, 'a wilful man maun hae his way.
What do your folk in the country think about the disturbances
that are beginning to spunk out in the colonies?'
'Aweel, what for should I not pleasure the young gentlemen? I'll
just drink to honest folk at hame and abroad, and deil ane else.
And then--but you have heard it before, Mrs. Crosbie?'
'Aye, aye,' said the provost, 'that was a snell law, I grant ye.'
'Snell!' said the wife, 'snell! I wish they that passed it had
the jury I would recommend them to!'
'I suppose the young lawyer thinks it all very right,' said
Summertrees, looking at Fairford--"an OLD lawyer might have
thought otherwise. However, the cudgel was to be found to beat
the dog, and they chose a heavy one. Well, I kept my spirits
better than my companion, poor fellow; for I had the luck to have
neither wife nor child to think about, and Harry Redgauntlet had
both one and t'other.--You have seen Harry, Mrs. Crosbie?'
'In troth have I,' said she, with the sigh which we give to early
recollections, of which the object is no more. 'He was not so
tall as his brother, and a gentler lad every way. After he
married the great English fortune, folk called him less of a
Scottishman than Edward.'
'Folk lee'd, then,' said Summertrees; 'poor Harry was none of
your bold-speaking, ranting reivers, that talk about what they
did yesterday, or what they will do to-morrow; it was when
something was to do at the moment that you should have looked at
Harry Redgauntlet. I saw him at Culloden, when all was lost,
doing more than twenty of these bleezing braggarts, till the very
soldiers that took him cried not to hurt him--for all somebody's
orders, provost--for he was the bravest fellow of them all.
Weel, as I went by the side of Harry, and felt him raise my hand
up in the mist of the morning, as if he wished to wipe his eye--
for he had not that freedom without my leave--my very heart was
like to break for him, poor fellow. In the meanwhile, I had been
trying and trying to make my hand as fine as a lady's, to see if
I could slip it out of my iron wristband. You may think,' he
said, laying his broad bony hand on the table, 'I had work enough
with such a shoulder-of-mutton fist; but if you observe, the
shackle-bones are of the largest, and so they were obliged to
keep the handcuff wide; at length I got my hand slipped out, and
slipped in again; and poor Harry was sae deep in his ain
thoughts, I could not make him sensible what I was doing,'
'Why not?' said Alan Fairford, for whom the tale began to have
some interest.
'You may say that,' continued the laird. 'Bad as it was, sir, it
was my only chance; and though my very flesh creeped when I
thought what a rumble I was going to get, yet I kept my heart up
all the same. And so, just when we came on the edge of this
Beef-stand of the Johnstones, I slipped out my hand from the
handcuff, cried to Harry Gauntlet, 'Follow me!'--whisked under
the belly of the dragoon horse--flung my plaid round me with the
speed of lightning--threw myself on my side, for there was no
keeping my feet, and down the brae hurled I, over heather and
fern, and blackberries, like a barrel down Chalmer's Close, in
Auld Reekie. G--, sir, I never could help laughing when I think
how the scoundrel redcoats must have been bumbazed; for the mist
being, as I said, thick, they had little notion, I take it, that
they were on the verge of such a dilemma. I was half way down--
for rowing is faster wark than rinning--ere they could get at
their arms; and then it was flash, flash, flash--rap, rap, rap--
from the edge of the road; but my head was too jumbled to think
anything either of that or the hard knocks I got among the
stones. I kept my senses thegither, whilk has been thought
wonderful by all that ever saw the place; and I helped myself
with my hands as gallantly as I could, and to the bottom I came.
There I lay for half a moment; but the thoughts of a gallows is
worth all the salts and scent-bottles in the world for bringing a
man to himself. Up I sprang, like a four-year-auld colt. All
the hills were spinning round with me, like so many great big
humming-tops. But there was nae time to think of that neither;
more especially as the mist had risen a little with the firing.
I could see the villains, like sae mony craws on the edge of the
brae; and I reckon that they saw me; for some of the loons were
beginning to crawl down the hill, but liker auld wives in their
red cloaks, coming frae a field preaching, than such a souple lad
as I was. Accordingly, they soon began to stop and load their
pieces. Good-e'en to you, gentlemen, thought I, if that is to be
the gate of it. If you have any further word with me, you maun
come as far as Carriefraw-gauns. And so off I set, and never
buck went faster ower the braes than I did; and I never stopped
till I had put three waters, reasonably deep, as the season was
rainy, half a dozen mountains, and a few thousand acres of the
worst moss and ling in Scotland, betwixt me and my friends the
redcoats.'
'It was that job which got you the name of Pate-in-Peril,' said
the provost, filling the glasses, and exclaiming with great
emphasis, while his guest, much animated with the recollections
which the exploit excited, looked round with an air of triumph
for sympathy and applause,--'Here is to your good health; and may
you never put your neck in such a venture again.' [The escape of
a Jacobite gentleman while on the road to Carlisle to take his
trial for his share in the affair of 1745, took place at
Errickstane-brae, in the singular manner ascribed to the Laird of
Summertrees in the text. The author has seen in his youth the
gentleman to whom the adventure actually happened. The distance
of time makes some indistinctness of recollection, but it is
believed the real name was MacEwen or MacMillan.]
'May I ask what became of your friend, sir?' said Alan Fairford.
'Ah, poor Harry!' said Summertrees. 'I'll tell you what, sir,
it takes time to make up one's mind to such a venture, as my
friend the provost calls it; and I was told by Neil Maclean,--who
was next file to us, but had the luck to escape the gallows by
some sleight-of-hand trick or other,--that, upon my breaking off,
poor Harry stood like one motionless, although all our brethren
in captivity made as much tumult as they could, to distract the
attention of the soldiers. And run he did at last; but he did
not know the ground, and either from confusion, or because he
judged the descent altogether perpendicular, he fled up the hill
to the left, instead of going down at once, and so was easily
pursued and taken. If he had followed my example, he would have
found enough among the shepherds to hide him, and feed him, as
they did me, on bearmeal scenes and braxy mutton, till better
days came round again.' [BRAXY MUTTON.--The flesh of sheep that
has died of disease, not by the hand of the butcher. In pastoral
countries it is used as food with little scruple.]
'He suffered then for his share in the insurrection?' said Alan.
'You may swear that,' said Summertrees. 'His blood was too red
to be spared when that sort of paint was in request. He
suffered, sir, as you call it--that is, he was murdered in cold
blood, with many a pretty fellow besides. Well, we may have our
day next--what is fristed is not forgiven--they think us all dead
and buried--but'--Here he filled his glass, and muttering some
indistinct denunciations, drank it off, and assumed his usual
manner, which had been a little disturbed towards the end of the
narrative.
'I do not believe a word of it,' said Mrs. Crosbie, kindling with
indignation. 'A Redgauntlet would have died twenty times before
he had touched a fiddler's wages.'
'You, must ask my leave first,' said the provost; 'for I have
been told you had some queer fashions of taking a kiss instead of
a penny, if you liked your customer.'
'Come, come, provost,' said the lady; rising, 'if the maut gets
abune the meal with you, it is time for me to take myself away--
And you will come to my room, gentlemen, when you want a cup of
tea.'
Alan Fairford was not sorry for the lady's departure. She seemed
too much alive to the honour of the house of Redgauntlet, though
only a fourth cousin, not to be alarmed by the inquiries which he
proposed to make after the whereabout of its present head.
Strange confused suspicions arose in his mind, from his imperfect
recollection of the tale of Wandering Willie, and the idea forced
itself upon him that his friend Darsie Latimer might be the son
of the unfortunate Sir Henry. But before indulging in such
speculations, the point was to discover what had actually become
of him. If he were in the hands of his uncle, might there not
exist some rivalry in fortune, or rank, which might induce so
stern a man as Redgauntlet to use unfair measures towards a youth
whom he would find himself unable to mould to his purpose? He
considered these points in silence, during several revolutions of
the glasses as they wheeled in galaxy round the bowl, waiting
until the provost, agreeably to his own proposal, should mention
the subject, for which he had expressly introduced him to Mr.
Maxwell of Summertrees.
'In troth I heard it, provost, and I was glad to hear the
scoundrels had so much pluck left as to right themselves against
a fashion which would make the upper heritors a sort of clocking-
hens, to hatch the fish that folk below them were to catch and
eat.'
'Well, sir,' said Alan, 'that is not the present point. But a
young friend of mine was with Mr. Geddes at the time this violent
procedure took place, and he has not since been heard of. Now,
our friend, the provost, thinks that you may be able to advise'--
'Me think!' said the provost; 'I never thought twice about it,
Mr. Fairford; it was neither fish, nor flesh, nor salt herring of
mine.'
'With your pardon,' said Alan, calmly, but resolutely, 'I must
ask a more serious answer.'
'Aye, sir, when you have your bag-wig and your gown on, we must
allow you the usual privilege of both gown and petticoat, to ask
what questions you please. But when you are out of your
canonicals, the case is altered. How come you, sir, to suppose
that I have any business with this riotous proceeding, or should
know more than you do what happened there? the question proceeds
on an uncivil supposition.'
'You must not be angry, Mr. Fairford, that the poor persecuted
nonjurors are a little upon the QUI VIVE when such clever young
men as you are making inquiries after us. I myself now, though I
am quite out of the scrape, and may cock my hat at the Cross as I
best like, sunshine or moonshine, have been yet so much
accustomed to walk with the lap of my cloak cast over my face,
that, faith, if a redcoat walk suddenly up to me, I wish for my
wheel and whetstone again for a moment. Now Redgauntlet, poor
fellow, is far worse off--he is, you may have heard, still under
the lash of the law,--the mark of the beast is still on his
forehead, poor gentleman,--and that makes us cautious--very
cautious, which I am sure there is no occasion to be towards you,
as no one of your appearance and manners would wish to trepan a
gentleman under misfortune.'
'On the contrary, sir,' said Fairford, 'I wish to afford Mr.
Redgauntlet's friends an opportunity to get him out of the
scrape, by procuring the instant liberation of my friend Darsie
Latimer. I will engage that if he has sustained no greater
bodily harm than a short confinement, the matter may be passed
over quietly, without inquiry; but to attain this end, so
desirable for the man who has committed a great and recent
infraction of the laws, which he had before grievously offended,
very speedy reparation of the wrong must be rendered.'
Maxwell at length let out the words, 'A good fright; and so send
him home with his tail scalded, like a dog that has come a-
privateering on strange premises.'
'Gentlemen,' said Fairford, 'I will not certainly shun any risk
by which my object may be accomplished; but I bind it on your
consciences--on yours, Mr. Maxwell, as a man of honour and a
gentleman; and on yours, provost, as a magistrate and a loyal
subject, that you do not mislead me in this matter.'
'Nay, as for me,' said Summertrees, 'I will tell you the truth at
once, and fairly own that I can certainly find you the means of
seeing Redgauntlet, poor man; and that I will do, if you require
it, and conjure him also to treat you as your errand requires;
but poor Redgauntlet is much changed--indeed, to say truth, his
temper never was the best in the world; however, I will warrant
you from any very great danger.'
'I will warrant myself from such,' said Fairford, 'by carrying a
proper force with me.'
'There is pen and ink in the office,' said the provost, pointing
to the door of an inner apartment, in which he had his walnut-
tree desk and east-country cabinet.
'A pen that can write, I hope?' said the old laird.
'It can write and spell baith in right hands,' answered the
provost, as the laird retired and shut the door behind him.
CHAPTER XII
'Mr. Fairford,' said he, 'you are a good lad; and, what is more,
you are my auld friend your father's son. Your father has been
agent for this burgh for years, and has a good deal to say with
the council; so there have been a sort of obligations between him
and me; it may have been now on this side and now on that; but
obligations there have been. I am but a plain man, Mr. Fairford;
but I hope you understand me?'
'I hope for your assistance and co-operation also,' said the
youth.
'But your advice, provost,' said Alan, who perceived that, like a
shy horse, the worthy magistrate always started off from his own
purpose just when he seemed approaching to it.
'I understand you, I think,' said Alan Fairford. 'You think that
Darsie Latimer is in danger of his life?'
I shall leave you to stand all the shots from that battery,
provost.' replied Fairford. 'But speak out like a man--Do you
think Summertrees means fairly by me?'
Fairford started, looked the provost hard in the face, and was
silent; while Mr. Crosbie, with the self-approbation of one who
has at length brought himself to the discharge of a great duty,
at the expense of a considerable sacrifice, nodded and winked to
Alan, as if enforcing his advice; and then swallowing a large
glass of punch, concluded, with the sigh of a man released from a
heavy burden, 'I am a plain man, Mr. Fairford.'
'A plain man?' said Maxwell, who entered the room at that
moment, with the letter in his hand,--'Provost, I never heard you
make use of the word but when you had some sly turn of your own
to work out.'
'I was trying,' said the provost, 'to dissuade our young friend
from his wildgoose expedition.'
'How, sir?' answered Alan; 'can you expect that I will not take
the precaution of informing some person of the route I am about
to take, that in case of accident it may be known where I am, and
with what purpose I have gone thither?'
'And can you expect,' answered Maxwell, in the same tone, 'that I
am to place my friend's safety, not merely in your hands, but in
those of any person you may choose to confide in, and who may use
the knowledge to his destruction? Na--na--I have pledged my word
for your safety, and you must give me yours to be private in the
matter--giff-gaff, you know.'
'He is not; I do not think he will come thither again until the
business of the stake-nets be hushed up, nor would I advise him
to do so--the Quakers, with all their demureness, can bear malice
as long as other folk; and though I have not the prudence of Mr.
Provost, who refuses to ken where his friends are concealed
during adversity, lest, perchance, he should be asked to
contribute to their relief, yet I do not think it necessary or
prudent to inquire into Redgauntlet's wanderings, poor man, but
wish to remain at perfect freedom to answer, if asked at, that I
ken nothing of the matter. You must, then, go to old Tom
Trumbull's at Annan,--Tam Turnpenny, as they call him,--and he is
sure either to know where Redgauntlet is himself, or to find some
one who can give a shrewd guess. But you must attend that old
Turnpenny will answer no question on such a subject without you
give him the passport, which at present you must do, by asking
him the age of the moon; if he answers, "Not light enough to land
a cargo," you are to answer, "Then plague on Aberdeen Almanacks,"
and upon that he will hold free intercourse with you. And now, I
would advise you to lose no time, for the parole is often
changed--and take care of yourself among these moonlight lads,
for laws and lawyers do not stand very high in their favour.'
'I will set out this instant,' said the young barrister; 'I will
but bid the provost and Mrs. Crosbie farewell, and then get on
horseback so soon as the ostler of the George Inn can saddle
him;--as for the smugglers, I am neither gauger nor supervisor,
and, like the man who met the devil, if they have nothing to say
to me, I have nothing to say to them.'
'I am much obliged for the provost's kindness, and yours, madam,'
replied Alan; 'but the truth is, I have still a long ride before
me this evening and the sooner I am on horse-back the better.'
'This evening?' said the provost, anxiously; 'had you not better
take daylight with you to-morrow morning?'
'Mr. Fairford will ride as well in the cool of the evening,' said
Summertrees, taking the word out of Alan's mouth.
The provost said no more, nor did his wife ask any questions, nor
testify any surprise at the suddenness of their guest's
departure.
Having drunk tea, Alan Fairford took leave with the usual
ceremony. The Laird of Summertrees seemed studious to prevent
any further communication between him and the provost, and
remained lounging on the landing-place of the stair while they
made their adieus--heard the provost ask if Alan proposed a
speedy return, and the latter reply that his stay was uncertain,
and witnessed the parting shake of the hand, which, with a
pressure more warm than usual, and a tremulous, 'God bless and
prosper you!' Mr. Crosbie bestowed on his young friend. Maxwell
even strolled with Fairford as far as the George, although
resisting all his attempts at further inquiry into the affairs of
Redgauntlet, and referring him to Tom Trumbull, alias Turnpenny,
for the particulars which he might find it necessary to inquire
into.
-- A drop,
That in the ocean seeks another drop, &c.
When, however, Fairford repeated the summons with the end of his
whip, the singing ceased, and Mr. Trumbull himself, with his
psalm-book in his hand, kept open by the insertion of his
forefinger between the leaves, came to demand the meaning of this
unseasonable interruption.
'Do you want me, sir?' he said to Fairford, whose guide had
slunk to the rear, as if to escape the rebuke of the severe old
man,--'We were engaged, and it is the Saturday night.'
'Not more than the casting the burden of our sins where they
should be laid,' said Thomas Trumbull, about to shut the door in
the inquirer's face.
He seemed about to shut the door, but did NOT shut it, a
circumstance which did not escape Alan's notice.
He was now about to slam the door in his visitor's face without
further ceremony, when Alan, who had observed symptoms that the
name of Redgauntlet did not seem altogether so indifferent to him
as he pretended, arrested his purpose by saying, in a low voice,
'At least you can tell me what age the moon is?'
The iron muscles of the old man's face did not, however, relax,
as he dropped, in a careless manner, the countersign, 'Not light
enough to land a cargo.'
'And plague of all fools that waste time,' said Thomas Trumbull,
'Could you not have said as much at first? And standing wasting
time, and encouraging; lookers-on, in the open street too? Come
in by--in by.'
He drew his visitor into the dark entrance of the house, and shut
the door carefully; then putting his head into an apartment which
the murmurs within announced to be filled with the family, he
said aloud, 'A work of necessity and mercy--Malachi, take the
book--You will sing six double verses of the hundred and
nineteen-and you may lecture out of the Lamentations. And,
Malachi,'--this he said in an undertone,--'see you give them a a
creed of doctrine that will last them till I come back; or else
these inconsiderate lads will be out of the house, and away to
the publics, wasting their precious time, and, it may be, putting
themselves in the way of missing the morning tide.'
As the light was now failing fast, the old man, with much more
alertness than might have been expected from the rigidity of his
figure, closed the window-shutters in an instant, produced
phosphorus and matches, and lighted a stable-lantern, which he
placed on the corn-bin, and then addressed Fairford. 'We are
private here, young man; and as some time has been wasted
already, you will be so kind as to tell me what is your errand.
Is it about the way of business, or the other job?'
'My business with you, Mr. Trumbull, is to request you will find
me the means of delivering this letter, from Mr. Maxwell of
Summertrees to the Laird of Redgauntlet.'
'Aye--I never saw them make a wiser choice--I must call some one
to direct you what to do--Stay, we must go to him, I believe.
You are well recommended to me, friend, and doubtless trusty;
otherwise you may see more than I would like to show, or am in
the use of showing in the common line of business.'
Saying this, he placed his lantern on the ground, beside the post
of one of the empty stalls, drew up a small spring bolt which
secured it to the floor, and then forcing the post to one side,
discovered a small trap-door. 'Follow me,' he said, and dived
into the subterranean descent to which this secret aperture gave
access.
The descent, which was not above six feet, led to a very narrow
passage, which seemed to have been constructed for the precise
purpose of excluding every one who chanced to be an inch more in
girth than was his conductor. A small vaulted room, of about
eight feet square, received them at the end of this lane. Here
Mr. Trumbull left Fairford alone, and returned for an instant, as
he said, to shut his concealed trap-door.
'Swanston was loading the JENNY, sir; and I stayed to serve out
the article.'
'I did not ask you WHERE she sailed for, Job,' said the old
gentleman, interrupting him. 'I thank my Maker, I know nothing
of their incomings or outgoings. I sell my article fairly and in
the ordinary way of business; and I wash my hands of everything
else. But what I wished to know is, whether the gentleman called
the Laird of the Solway Lakes is on the other side of the Border
even now?'
'Aye, aye,' said Job, 'the laird is something in my own line, you
know--a little contraband or so, There is a statute for him--But
no matter; he took the sands after the splore at the Quaker's
fish-traps yonder; for he has a leal heart, the laird, and is
always true to the country-side. But avast--is all snug here?'
So saying, he suddenly turned on Alan Fairford the light side of
the lantern he carried, who, by the transient gleam which it
threw in passing on the man who bore it, saw a huge figure,
upwards of six feet high, with a rough hairy cap on his head, and
a set of features corresponding to his bulky frame. He thought
also he observed pistols at his belt.
'I will answer for this gentleman,' said Mr. Trumbull; 'he must
be brought to speech of the laird.'
'Well, I hope you will one day know, Job,' answered Mr.
Trumbull,--'the comfort of a conscience void of offence, and that
fears neither gauger nor collector, neither excise nor customs.
The business is to pass this gentleman to Cumberland upon earnest
business, and to procure him speech with the Laird of the Solway
Lakes--I suppose that can be done? Now I think Nanty Ewart, if
he sails with the brig this morning tide, is the man to set him
forward.'
'Aye, aye, truly is he,' said Job; 'never man knew the Border,
dale and fell, pasture and ploughland, better than Nanty; and he
can always bring him to the laird, too, if you are sure the
gentleman's right. But indeed that's his own look-out; for were
he the best man in Scotland, and the chairman of the d--d Board
to boot, and had fifty men at his back, he were as well not visit
the laird for anything but good. As for Nanty, he is word and
blow, a d--d deal fiercer than Cristie Nixon that they keep such
a din about. I have seen them both tried, by'--
Fairford now found himself called upon to say something; yet his
feelings, upon finding himself thus completely in the power of a
canting hypocrite, and of his retainer, who had so much the air
of a determined ruffian, joined to the strong and abominable fume
which they snuffed up with indifference, while it almost deprived
him of respiration, combined to render utterance difficult. He
stated, however, that he had no evil intentions towards the
laird, as they called him, but was only the bearer of a letter to
him on particular business, from Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees.
'Aye, aye,' said Job, 'that may be well enough; and if Mr.
Trumbull is satisfied that the service is right, why, we will
give you a cast in the JUMPING JENNY this tide, and Nanty Ewart
will put you on a way of finding the laird, I warrant you.'
'I may for the present return, I presume, to the inn where I left
my horse?' said Fairford.
'With pardon,' replied Mr. Trumbull, 'you have been ower far ben
with us for that; but Job will take you to a place where you may
sleep rough till he calls you. I will bring you what little
baggage you can need--for those who go on such errands must not
be dainty. I will myself see after your horse, for a merciful
man is merciful to his beast--a matter too often forgotten in our
way of business.'
'Why, Master Trumbull,' replied Job, 'you know that when we are
chased, it's no time to shorten sail, and so the boys do ride
whip and spur.' He stopped in his speech, observing the old man
had vanished through the door by which he had entered--'That's
always the way with old Turnpenny,' he said to Fairford; 'he
cares for nothing of the trade but the profit--now, d--me, if I
don't think the fun of it is better worth while. But come along,
my fine chap; I must stow you away in safety until it is time to
go aboard.'
CHAPTER XIII
'The old master will take care of that himself,' said Job
Rutledge; and drawing back in the direction in which he had
entered, he vanished from the farther end of the apartment, by a
mode which the candles, still shedding an imperfect light, gave
Alan no means of ascertaining. Thus the adventurous young lawyer
was left alone in the apartment to which he had been conducted by
so singular a passage.
Not greatly liking the contents of the closet, Alan Fairford shut
the door, and resumed his scrutiny round the walls of the
apartment, in order to discover the mode of Job Rutledge's
retreat. The secret passage was, however, too artificially
concealed, and the young lawyer had nothing better to do than to
meditate on the singularity of his present situation. He had
long known that the excise laws had occasioned an active
contraband trade betwixt Scotland and England, which then, as
now, existed, and will continue to exist until the utter
abolition of the wretched system which establishes an inequality
of duties betwixt the different parts of the same kingdom; a
system, be it said in passing, mightily resembling the conduct of
a pugilist, who should tie up one arm that he might fight the
better with the other. But Fairford was unprepared for the
expensive and regular establishments by which the illicit traffic
was carried on, and could not have conceived that the capital
employed in it should have been adequate to the erection of these
extensive buildings, with all their contrivances for secrecy of
communication. He was musing on these circumstances, not without
some anxiety for the progress of his own journey, when suddenly,
as he lifted his eyes, he discovered old Mr. Trumbull at the
upper end of the apartment, bearing in one hand a small bundle,
in the other his dark lantern, the light of which, as he
advanced, he directed full upon Fairford's countenance.
'I have brought you,' said Trumbull, 'a clean shirt, and some
stockings, which is all the baggage you can conveniently carry,
and I will cause one of the lads lend you a horseman's coat, for
it is ill sailing or riding without one; and, touching your
valise, it will be as safe in my poor house, were it full of the
gold of Ophir, as if it were in the depth of the mine.' 'I have
no doubt of it,' said Fairford.
'And now,' said Trumbull, again, 'I pray you to tell me by what
name I am to name you to Nanty (which is Antony) Ewart?'
'But that,' said Mr. Trumbull, in reply, 'is your own proper name
and surname.'
'And what other should I give?' said the young man; 'do you
think I have any occasion for an alias? And, besides, Mr.
Trumbull,' added Alan, thinking a little raillery might intimate
confidence of spirit, 'you blessed yourself, but a little while
since, that you had no acquaintance with those who defiled their
names so far as to be obliged to change them.'
'You are witty, Mr. Trumbull,' said Fairford; 'but jests are no
arguments--I shall keep my own name.'
'At your own pleasure,' said the merchant; 'there is but one name
which,' &c. &c, &c.
We will not follow the hypocrite through the impious cant which
he added, in order to close the subject.
'Better pray for it than drink for it, Robin,' said Mr. Trumbull.
'Yours is a dangerous trade, Robin; it hurts mony a ane--baith
host and guest. But ye will get the blue bowl, Robin--the blue
bowl--that will sloken all their drouth, and prevent the sinful
repetition of whipping for an eke of a Saturday at e'en. Aye,
Robin, it is a pity of Nanty Ewart--Nanty likes the turning up of
his little finger unco weel, and we maunna stint him, Robin, so
as we leave him sense to steer by.'
'It is not my custom, Mr. Ewart,' said the old gentleman, 'as you
well know, to become a chamberer or carouser thus late on
Saturday at e'en; but I wanted to recommend to your attention a
young friend of ours, that is going upon a something particular
journey, with a letter to our friend the Laird from Pate-in-
Peril, as they call him.'
'Aye, Mr. Alan Fairford--a good name for a fair trader--Mr. Alan
Fairford; and may he be long withheld from the topmost round of
ambition, which I take to be the highest round of a certain
ladder.'
When the grace was at length over, the three friends sat down to
their beverage, and invited Alan Fairford to partake. Anxious
about his situation, and disgusted as he was with his company, he
craved, and with difficulty obtained permission, under the
allegation of being fatigued, heated, and the like, to stretch
himself on a couch which was in the apartment, and attempted at
least to procure some rest before high-water, when the vessel was
to sail.
It was after Alan had slumbered for three or four hours, that he
was wakened by voices bidding him rise up and prepare to be
jogging. He started up accordingly, and found himself in
presence of the same party of boon companions; who had just
dispatched their huge bowl of punch. To Alan's surprise, the
liquor had made but little innovation on the brains of men who
were accustomed to drink at all hours, and in the most inordinate
quantities. The landlord indeed spoke a little thick, and the
texts of Mr. Thomas Trumbull stumbled on his tongue; but Nanty
was one of those topers, who, becoming early what bon vivants
term flustered, remain whole nights and days at the same point of
intoxication; and, in fact, as they are seldom entirely sober,
can be as rarely seen absolutely drunk. Indeed, Fairford, had he
not known how Ewart had been engaged whilst he himself was
asleep, would almost have sworn when he awoke, that the man was
more sober than when he first entered the room.
When they issued from the inn, the landlord bid them goodbye.
Old Trumbull walked a little way with them, but the air had
probably considerable effect on the state of his brain; for after
reminding Alan Fairford that the next day was the honourable
Sabbath, he became extremely excursive in an attempt to exhort
him to keep it holy. At length, being perhaps sensible that he
was becoming unintelligible, he thrust a volume into Fairford's
hand--hiccuping at the same time--'Good book--good book--fine
hymn-book--fit for the honourable Sabbath, whilk awaits us to-
morrow morning.' Here the iron tongue of time told five from the
town steeple of Annan, to the further confusion of Mr. Trumbull's
already disordered ideas. 'Aye? Is Sunday come and gone
already? Heaven be praised! Only it is a marvel the afternoon
is sae dark for the time of the year--Sabbath has slipped ower
quietly, but we have reason to bless oursells it has not been
altogether misemployed. I heard little of the preaching--a cauld
moralist, I doubt, served that out--but, eh--the prayer--I mind
it as if I had said the words mysell.' Here he repeated one or
two petitions, which were probably a part of his family
devotions, before he was summoned forth to what he called the way
of business. 'I never remember a Sabbath pass so cannily off in
my life.' Then he recollected himself a little, and said to
Alan, 'You may read that book, Mr. Fairford, to-morrow, all the
same, though it be Monday; for, you see, it was Saturday when we
were thegither, and now it's Sunday and it's dark night--so the
Sabbath has slipped clean away through our fingers like water
through a sieve, which abideth not; and we have to begin again
to-morrow morning, in the weariful, base, mean, earthly
employments, whilk are unworthy of an immortal spirit--always
excepting the way of business.'
These words, and the awkward courtesy with which the skipper of
the little brig tucked the sea-coat round Fairford, gave him a
confidence of safety which he had not yet thoroughly possessed.
He stretched himself in more security on the hard planks, and was
speedily asleep, though his slumbers were feverish and
unrefreshing.
When the voyager was awakened by the light of the sun now riding
high in heaven, he found himself under the influence of an almost
intolerable headache, with heat, thirst, shooting across the back
and loins, and other symptoms intimating violent cold,
accompanied with fever. The manner in which he had passed the
preceding day and night, though perhaps it might have been of
little consequence to most young men, was to him, delicate in
constitution and nurture, attended with bad and even perilous
consequences. He felt this was the case, yet would fain have
combated the symptoms of indisposition, which, indeed, he imputed
chiefly to sea-sickness. He sat up on deck, and looked on the
scene around, as the little vessel, having borne down the Solway
Firth, was beginning, with a favourable northerly breeze, to bear
away to the southward, crossing the entrance of the Wampool
river, and preparing to double the most northerly point of
Cumberland.
'Good God!' he thought, 'and did this hoary reprobate summon his
family together, and, with such a disgraceful pledge of infamy in
his bosom, venture to approach the throne of his Creator? It
must be so; the book is bound after the manner of those dedicated
to devotional subjects, and doubtless the wretch, in his
intoxication, confounded the books he carried with him, as he did
the days of the week.' Seized with the disgust with which the
young and generous usually regard the vices of advanced life,
Alan, having turned the leaves of the book over in hasty disdain,
flung it from him, as far as he could, into the sea. He then had
recourse to the Sallust, which he had at first sought for in
vain. As he opened the book, Nanty Ewart, who had been looking
over his shoulder, made his own opinion heard.
'I hope, sir,' answered Fairford, civilly, 'you are in the habit
of reading better books.'
'Well,' said the seaman, 'I have heard of the Sortes Virgilianae,
and I dare say the Sortes Sallustianae are as true every tittle.
I have consulted honest Crispus on my own account, and have had a
cuff for my pains. But now see, I open the book on your behalf,
and behold what occurs first to my eye!--Lo you there--"CATILINA
. . . OMNIUM FLAGITIOSORUM ATQUE FACINOROSORUM CIRCUM SE
HABEBAT." And then again--"ETIAM SI QUIS A CULPA VACUUS IN
AMICITIAM EJUS INCIDIDERAT QUOTIDIANO USU PAR SIMILISQUE CAETERIS
EFFICIEBATUR." [After enumerating the evil qualities of
Catiline's associates, the author adds, 'If it happened that any
as yet uncontaminated by vice were fatally drawn into his
friendship, the effects of intercourse and snares artfully
spread, subdued every scruple, and early assimilated them to
their conductors.'--Ibidem, p. 19.] That is what I call plain
speaking on the part of the old Roman, Mr. Fairford. By the way,
that is a capital name for a lawyer.
'Nay, then,' said Ewart, 'I can try it another way, as well as
the hypocritical old rascal Turnpenny himself could do. I would
have you to know that I am well acquainted with my Bible-book, as
well as with my friend Sallust.' He then, in a snuffling and
canting tone, began to repeat the Scriptural text--'"DAVID
THEREFORE DEPARTED THENCE, AND WENT TO THE CAVE OF ADULLAM. AND
EVERY ONE THAT WAS IN DISTRESS, AND EVERY ONE THAT WAS IN DEBT,
AND EVERY ONE THAT WAS DISCONTENTED, GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER
UNTO HIM, AND HE BECAME A CAPTAIN OVER THEM." What think you of
that?' he said, suddenly changing his manner. 'Have I touched
you now, sir?'
'Why, then,' continued Ewart, 'if you will do nothing for the
free trade, I must patronize it myself.'
'A hair of the dog that bit me,' he continued,--'of the dog that
will worry me one day soon; and yet, and be d--d to me for an
idiot, I must always have hint at my throat. But, says the old
catch'--Here he sang, and sang well--
Nanty Ewart was soon heard calling about, 'Break open yon chest--
take out your capful, you bastard of a powder-monkey; we may want
it again. No sugar? all used up for grog, say you? knock
another loaf to pieces, can't ye? and get the kettle boiling, ye
hell's baby, in no time at all!'
CHAPTER XIV
Nanty Ewart had now given the helm to one of his people, a
bald-pated, grizzled old fellow, whose whole life had been spent
in evading the revenue laws, with now and then the relaxation of
a few months' imprisonment, for deforcing officers, resisting
seizures, and the like offences.
Nanty himself sat down by Fairford, helped him to his tea, with
such other refreshments as he could think of, and seemed in his
way sincerely desirous to make his situation as comfortable as
things admitted. Fairford had thus an opportunity to study his
countenance and manners more closely.
It was plain, Ewart, though a good seaman, had not been bred upon
that element. He was a reasonably good scholar, and seemed fond
of showing it by recurring to the subject of Sallust and Juvenal;
while, on the other hand, sea-phrases seldom chequered his
conversation. He had been in person what is called a smart
little man; but the tropical sun had burnt his originally fair
complexion to a dusty red; and the bile which was diffused
through his system, had stained it with a yellowish black--what
ought to have been the white part of his eyes, in particular, had
a hue as deep as the topaz. He was very thin, or rather
emaciated, and his countenance, though still indicating alertness
and activity, showed a constitution exhausted with excessive use
of his favourite stimulus.
'I see you look at me hard,' said he to Fairford. 'Had you been
an officer of the d--d customs, my terriers' backs would have been
up. He opened his breast, and showed Alan a pair of pistols
disposed between his waistcoat and jacket, placing his finger at
the same time upon the cock of one of them. 'But come, you are
an honest fellow, though you're a close one. I dare say you
think me a queer customer; but I can tell you, they that see the
ship leave harbour know little of the seas she is to sail
through. My father, honest old gentleman, never would have
thought to see me master of the JUMPING JENNY.'
'In this extremity I dared not stay where I was, and so thought
to go home to my father. But first I got Jack Radaway, a lad
from the same parish, and who lived in the same infernal stair,
to make some inquiries how the old gentleman had taken the
matter. I soon, by way of answer, learned, to the great increase
of my comfortable reflections, that the good old man made as much
clamour as if such a thing as a man's eating his wedding dinner
without saying grace had never happened since Adam's time. He
did nothing for six days but cry out, "Ichabod, Ichabod, the
glory is departed from my house!" and on the seventh he preached
a sermon, in which he enlarged on this incident as illustrative
of one of the great occasions for humiliation, and causes of
national defection. I hope the course he took comforted himself
--I am sure it made me ashamed to show my nose at home. So I
went down to Leith, and, exchanging my hoddin grey coat of my
mother's spinning for such a jacket as this, I entered my name at
the rendezvous as an able-bodied landsman, and sailed with the
tender round to Plymouth, where they were fitting out a squadron
for the West Indies. There I was put aboard the FEARNOUGHT,
Captain Daredevil--among whose crew I soon learned to fear Satan
(the terror of my early youth) as little as the toughest Jack on
board. I had some qualms at first, but I took the remedy'
(tapping the case-bottle) 'which I recommend to you, being as
good for sickness of the soul as for sickness of the stomach--
What, you won't?--very well, I must, then--here is to ye.'
'Pardon me, sir,' resumed the captain of the JUMPING JENNY; 'my
handful of Latin, and small pinch of Greek, were as useless as
old junk, to be sure; but my reading, writing and accompting,
stood me in good stead, and brought me forward; I might have been
schoolmaster--aye, and master, in time; but that valiant liquor,
rum, made a conquest of me rather too often, and so, make what
sail I could, I always went to leeward. We were four years
broiling in that blasted climate, and I came back at last with a
little prize-money. I always had thoughts of putting things to
rights in the Covenant Close, and reconciling myself to my
father. I found out Jack Hadaway, who was TUPTOWING away with a
dozen of wretched boys, and a fine string of stories he had ready
to regale my ears withal. My father had lectured on what he
called "my falling away," for seven Sabbaths, when, just as his
parishioners began to hope that the course was at an end, he was
found dead in his bed on the eighth Sunday morning. Jack Hadaway
assured me, that if I wished to atone for my errors, by
undergoing the fate of the first martyr, I had only to go to my
native village, where the very stones of the street would rise up
against me as my father's murderer. Here was a pretty item--
well, my tongue clove to my mouth for an hour, and was only able
at last to utter the name of Mrs. Cantrips. Oh, this was a new
theme for my Job's comforter. My sudden departure--my father's
no less sudden death--had prevented the payment of the arrears of
my board and lodging--the landlord was a haberdasher, with a
heart as rotten as the muslin wares he dealt in. Without respect
to her age or gentle kin, my Lady Kittlebasket was ejected from
her airy habitation--her porridge-pot, silver posset-dish,
silver-mounted spectacles, and Daniel's Cambridge Bible, sold, at
the Cross of Edinburgh, to the caddie who would bid highest for
them, and she herself driven to the workhouse, where she got in
with difficulty, but was easily enough lifted out, at the end of
the month, as dead as her friends could desire. Merry tidings
this to me, who had been the d--d' (he paused a moment) 'ORIGO
MALI--Gad, I think my confession would sound better in Latin than
in English!
'But the best jest was behind--I had just power to stammer out
something about Jess--by my faith he HAD an answer! I had taught
Jess one trade, and, like a prudent girl, she had found out
another for herself; unluckily, they were both contraband, and
Jess Cantrips, daughter of the Lady Kittlebasket, had the honour
to be transported to the plantations, for street-walking and
pocket-picking, about six months before I touched shore.'
It was market-day, and the usual number of rogues and fools were
assembled at the Cross. I observed everybody looked strange on
me, and I thought some laughed. I fancy I had been making queer
faces enough, and perhaps talking to myself, When I saw myself
used in this manner, I held out my clenched fists straight before
me, stooped my head, and, like a ram when be makes his race,
darted off right down the street, scattering groups of
weatherbeaten lairds and periwigged burgesses, and bearing down
all before me. I heard the cry of "Seize the madman!" echoed, in
Celtic sounds, from the City Guard, with "Ceaze ta matman!"--but
pursuit and opposition were in vain. I pursued my career; the
smell of the sea, I suppose, led me to Leith, where, soon after,
I found myself walking very quietly on the shore, admiring the
tough round and sound cordage of the vessels, and thinking how a
loop, with a man at the end of one of them, would look, by way of
tassel.
'Why then, and in that case, I must keep off till night, and then
run you, with the kegs and the rest of the lumber, ashore at
Skinburness,'
'And then I am to meet with this same laird whom I have the letter
for?' continued Fairford.
'That,' said Ewart, 'is thereafter as it may be; the ship has its
course--the fair trader has his port--but it is not easy to say
where the laird may be found. But he will be within twenty miles
of us, off or on--and it will be my business to guide you to
him.'
'Now, by Jove!' said Nanty Ewart, 'thou art either the deepest
or the shallowest fellow I ever met with--or you are not right
after all. I wonder where Summertrees could pick up such a
tender along-shore. Will you let me see his letter?'
'Perhaps, Mr. Ewart,' said Fairford, 'you live chiefly with men
too deeply interested for their own immediate safety, to think
much upon the distress of others?'
'I really am not in such secrets as you seem to allude to,' said
Fairford; and, determined at the same time to avail himself as
far as possible of Nanty's communicative disposition, he added,
with a smile,' And if I were, I should not hold it prudent to
make them much the subject of conversation. But I am sure, so
sensible a man as Summertrees and the laird may correspond
together without offence to the state.'
'I take you, friend--I take you,' said Nanty Ewart, upon whom, at
length, the liquor and tobacco-smoke began to make considerable
innovation. 'As to what gentlemen may or may not correspond
about, why we may pretermit the question, as the old professor
used to say at the Hall; and as to Summertrees, I will say
nothing, knowing him to be an old fox. But I say that this
fellow the laird is a firebrand in the country ; that he is
stirring up all the honest fellows who should be drinking their
brandy quietly, by telling them stories about their ancestors and
the Forty-five ; and that he is trying to turn all waters into
his own mill-dam, and to set his sails to all winds. And because
the London people are roaring about for some pinches of their
own, he thinks to win them to his turn with a wet finger. And he
gets encouragement from some, because they want a spell of money
from him; and from others, because they fought for the cause once
and are ashamed to go back; and others, because they have nothing
to lose; and others, because they are discontented fools. But if
he has brought you, or any one, I say not whom, into this scrape,
with the hope of doing any good, he's a d--d decoy-duck, and
that's all I can say for him; and you are geese, which is worse
than being decoy-ducks, or lame-ducks either. And so here is to
the prosperity of King George the Third, and the true
Presbyterian religion, and confusion to the Pope, the Devil, and
the Pretender! I'll tell you what, Mr. Fairbairn, I am but tenth
owner of this bit of a craft, the JUMPING JENNY--but tenth owner
and must sail her by my owners' directions. But if I were whole
owner, I would not have the brig be made a ferry-boat for your
Jacobitical, old-fashioned Popish riff-raff, Mr. Fairport--I
would not, by my soul; they should walk the plank, by the gods,
as I have seen better men do when I sailed under the What-d'ye-
callum colours. But being contraband goods, and on board my
vessel, and I with my sailing orders in my hand, why, I am to
forward them as directed--I say, John Roberts, keep her up a bit
with the helm.--and so, Mr. Fairweather, what I do is--as the
d--d villain Turnpenny says--all in the way of business.'
He had been speaking with difficulty for the last five minutes,
and now at length dropped on the deck, fairly silenced by the
quantity of spirits which he had swallowed, but without having
showed any glimpse of the gaiety, or even of the extravagance, of
intoxication.
The old sailor stepped forward and flung a sea-cloak over the
slumberer's shoulders, and added, looking at Fairford, 'Pity of
him he should have this fault; for without it, he would have been
as clever a fellow as ever trod a plank with ox leather.'
'Stand off and on, to be sure, till we see the signal, and then
obey orders.'
So saying, the old man turned to his duty, and left the passenger
to amuse himself with his own meditations. Presently afterward a
light column of smoke was seen rising from the little headland.
'I can tell you what we are to do now, master,' said the sailor.
'We'll stand out to sea, and then run in again with the evening
tide, and make Skinburness; or, if there's not light, we can run
into the Wampool river, and put you ashore about Kirkbride or
Leaths, with the long-boat.'
CHAPTER XV
NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED
It was with difficulty that Fairford could get over the side of
the vessel, and he could not seat himself on the stern of the
boat without assistance from the captain and his people. Nanty
Ewart, who saw nothing in this worse than an ordinary fit of sea-
sickness, applied the usual topics of consolation. He assured
his passenger that he would be quite well by and by, when he had
been half an hour on terra firma, and that he hoped to drink a
can and smoke a pipe with him at Father Crackenthorp's, for all
that he felt a little out of the way for riding the wooden horse.
'Ah, how much good brandy he and I have made little of in our
day! By my soul, Mr. Fairbird, he is the prince of skinkers, and
the father of the free trade--not a stingy hypocritical devil
like old Turnpenny Skinflint, that drinks drunk on other folk's
cost, and thinks it sin when he has to pay for it--but a real
hearty old cock;--the sharks have been at and about him this many
a day, but Father Crackenthorp knows how to trim his sails--never
a warrant but he hears of it before the ink's dry. He is BONUS
SOCIUS with headborough and constable. The king's exchequer
could not bribe a man to inform against him. If any such rascal
were to cast up, why, he would miss his ears next morning, or be
sent to seek them in the Solway. He is a statesman, [A small
landed proprietor.] though he keeps a public; but, indeed, that
is only for convenience and to excuse his having cellarage and
folk about him; his wife's a canny woman--and his daughter Doll
too. Gad, you'll be in port there till you get round again; and
I'll keep my word with you, and bring you to speech of the laird.
Gad, the only trouble I shall have is to get you out of the
house; for Doll is a rare wench, and my dame a funny old one, and
Father Crackenthorp the rarest companion! He'll drink you a
bottle of rum or brandy without starting, but never wet his lips
with the nasty Scottish stuff that the canting old scoundrel
Turnpenny has brought into fashion. He is a gentleman, every
inch of him, old Crackenthorp; in his own way, that is; and
besides, he has a share in the JUMPING JENNY, and many a
moonlight outfit besides. He can give Doll a pretty penny, if he
likes the tight fellow that would turn in with her for life.'
By this time all the boat's load was ashore, consisting of the
little barrels; and the boat's crew, standing to their arms,
ranged themselves in front, waiting the advance of the horses
which came clattering along the beach. A man, overgrown with
corpulence, who might be distinguished in the moonlight panting
with his own exertions, appeared at the head of the cavalcade,
which consisted of horses linked together, and accommodated with
packsaddles, and chains for securing the kegs which made a
dreadful clattering.
'How many rogues are the officers? If not more than ten, I will
make fight.'
'Nay, then,' said Nanty, 'we must make sail. Come, Master
Fairlord, you must mount and ride. He does not hear me--he has
fainted, I believe--What the devil shall I do? Father
Crackenthorp, I must leave this young fellow with you till the
gale blows out--hark ye--goes between the laird and the t'other
old one; he can neither ride nor walk--I must send him up to
you.'
'I wish they were at the bottom of Wampool river, with them they
belong to,' said Nanty Ewart. 'But they are part of cargo; and
what to do with the poor young fellow--'
'Well, captain, an ye will risk your own neck for another man's,
why not take him to the old girls at Fairladies?'
'What, the Miss Arthurets! The Papist jades! But never mind; it
will do--I have known them take in a whole sloop's crew that were
stranded on the sands.'
'Never mind--I may chance to put some of them down again,' said
Nanty, cheerfully. 'Come, lads, bustle to your tackle. Are you
all loaded?'
Thus, and with much more to the same purpose, Nanty ran on,
increasing, by his well-intended annoyance, the agony of Alan
Fairford, who, tormented by a racking pain along the back and
loins, which made the rough trot of the horse torture to him, had
his aching head still further rended and split by the hoarse
voice of the sailor, close to his ear. Perfectly passive,
however, he did not even essay to give any answer; and indeed his
own bodily distress was now so great and engrossing, that to
think of his situation was impossible, even if he could have
mended it by doing so.
Their course was inland; but in what direction, Alan had no means
of ascertaining. They passed at first over heaths and sandy
downs; they crossed more than one brook, or beck, as they are
called in that country--some of them of considerable depth--and
at length reached a cultivated country, divided, according to the
English fashion of agriculture, into very small fields or closes,
by high banks, overgrown with underwood, and surmounted by hedge-
row trees, amongst which winded a number of impracticable and
complicated lanes, where the boughs projecting from the
embankments on each side, intercepted the light of the moon, and
endangered the safety of the horsemen. But through this
labyrinth the experience of the guides conducted them without a
blunder, and without even the slackening of their pace. In many
places, however, it was impossible for three men to ride abreast;
and therefore the burden of supporting Alan Fairford fell
alternately to old Jephson and to Nanty; and it was with much
difficulty that they could keep him upright in his saddle.
At length, when his powers of sufferance were quite worn out, and
he was about to implore them to leave him to his fate in the
first cottage or shed--or under a haystack or a hedge--or
anywhere, so he was left at ease, Collier, who rode ahead, passed
back the word that they were at the avenue to Fairladies--'Was he
to turn up?'
'But there is a gate now, and a porter too,' said a rough voice
from within. 'Who be you, and what do you want at this time of
night?'
'Why, Dick Gardener,' said Skelton, 'be thou then turned porter?'
'I know you, by your by-word,' answered the other; 'What, have
you forgot little Sam Skelton, and the brock in the barrel?'
'But we are armed, and will not be kept back,' said Nanty. 'Hark
ye, fellow, were it not better for you to take a guinea and let
us in, than to have us break the door first, and thy pate
afterwards? for I won't see my comrade die at your door be
assured of that.'
'Why, I dunna know,' said the fellow; 'but what cattle were those
that rode by in such hurry?'
'Had thought thou wouldst have known the clatter of a cask from
the clash of a broadsword, as well as e'er a quaffer in
Cumberland,' said Skelton.
'Come, brother, less of your jaw and more of your legs, if you
please,' said Nanty; 'every moment we stay is a moment lost. Go
to the ladies, and tell them that Nanty Ewart, of the JUMPING
JENNY, has brought a young gentleman, charged with letters from
Scotland to a certain gentleman of consequence in Cumberland--
that the soldiers are out, and the gentleman is very ill and if
he is not received at Fairladies he must be left either to die at
the gate, or to be taken, with all his papers about him, by the
redcoats.'
Away ran Dick Gardener with this message; and, in a few minutes,
lights were seen to flit about, which convinced Fairford, who was
now, in consequence of the halt, a little restored to self-
possession, that they were traversing the front of a tolerably
large mansion-house.
'What if thy friend, Dick Gardener, comes not back again?' said
Jephson to Skelton.
'Why, then,' said the person addressed, 'I shall owe him just
such a licking as thou, old Jephson, had from Dan Cooke, and will
pay as duly and truly as he did.'
The old man was about to make an angry reply, when his doubts
were silenced by the return of Dick Gardener, who announced that
Miss Arthuret was coming herself as far as the gateway to speak
with them.
Nanty Ewart cursed in a low tone the suspicions of old maids and
the churlish scruples of Catholics, that made so many obstacles
to helping a fellow creature, and wished Miss Arthuret a hearty
rheumatism or toothache as the reward of her excursion; but the
lady presently appeared, to cut short further grumbling. She was
attended by a waiting-maid with a lantern, by means of which she
examined the party on the outside, as closely as the imperfect
light, and the spars of the newly-erected gate, would permit.
'Holy Virgin,' said she, 'why do you speak so loud? Pray, are
you not the captain of the SAINTE GENEVIEVE?'
'You brought over the holy Father Buonaventure, did you not?'
'Saint Mary! what shall we do?' said Miss Arthuret; 'we must
admit him, I think, at all risks. You, Richard Gardener, help
one of these men to carry the gentleman up to the Place; and you,
Selby, see him lodged at the end of the long gallery. You are a
heretic, captain, but I think you are trusty, and I know you have
been trusted--but if you are imposing on me'--
Alan did so; and, refreshed by his halt, declared himself able to
walk to the house with the sole assistance of the gardener.
'Why, that's hearty. Thank thee, Dick, for lending him thine
arm'--and Nanty slipped into his hand the guinea he had
promised.--'Farewell, then, Mr. Fairford, and farewell, Madam
Arthuret, for I have been too long here.'
With more talk to the same purpose, all of which tended to show a
charitable and somewhat silly woman with a strong inclination to
her superstitious devotion, Miss Arthuret entertained her new
guest, as, stumbling at every obstacle which the devotion of his
guide, Richard, had left in the path, he at last, by ascending
some stone steps decorated on the side with griffins, or some
such heraldic anomalies, attained a terrace extending in front of
the Place of Fairladies; an old-fashioned gentleman's house of
some consequence, with its range of notched gable-ends and narrow
windows, relieved by here and there an old turret about the size
of a pepper-box. The door was locked during the brief absence of
the mistress; a dim light glimmered through the sashed door of
the hall, which opened beneath a huge stone porch, loaded with
jessamine and other creepers. All the windows were dark as
pitch.
'No doubt, sister,' said Angelica, undoing bolt and bar; 'but you
know our charge, and the enemy is watchful to surprise us--
INCEDIT SICUT LEO VORANS, saith the breviary. Whom have you
brought here? Oh, sister, what have you done?'
She lowered her voice as she mumbled over the last words.
CHAPTER XVI
'I know best what my own life is worth,' said Alan; 'and I do not
value it in comparison to the business which requires my instant
attention.'
'I dare say, Sister Angelica,' said the elder Miss Arthuret, that
the gentleman is honest; and if he is really a relation of Father
Fairford, we can run no risk.'
So out the ladies rustled in their silks and tissues, and it was
a good half-hour ere they rustled in again, with importance and
awe on their countenances.
'To tell you the truth, Mr. Fairford, the cause of our desire to
delay you is--there is a religious gentleman in this house at
present'--
'And we had best both leave the room,' said the younger lady, 'for
here his Eminence comes.'
A solemn and stately step was now heard in the gallery; it might
have proclaimed the approach not merely of a bishop or cardinal,
but of the Sovereign Pontiff himself. Nor could the sound have
been more respectfully listened to by the two ladies, had it
announced that the Head of the Church was approaching in person.
They drew themselves, like sentinels on duty, one on each side of
the door by which the long gallery communicated with Fairford's
apartment, and stood there immovable, and with countenances
expressive of the deepest reverence.
'Can the good souls apprehend danger from me to this god of their
idolatry?' thought Fairford. But he had no time to make further
observations, for the stranger had already reached the middle of
his apartment.
'Take your seat, sir,' said the father; 'you have been an
invalid.'
He spoke with the tone of one who desires an inferior to be
seated in his presence, and his voice was full and melodious.
'Do you count kindred with them, Mr. Fairford?' continued the
inquirer.
'I have not the honour to lay such a claim,' said Fairford.
'My father's industry has raised his family from a low and
obscure situation--I have no hereditary claim to distinction of
any kind. May I ask the cause of these inquiries?'
'I hope so, sir,' said Alan, colouring with displeasure. 'I have
not been accustomed to have it questioned.'
'The Pretender!' said the priest, with some angry emphasis; but
immediately softened his tone and added, 'No doubt, however, that
person is a pretender; and some people think his pretensions are
not ill founded. But, before running into politics, give me
leave to say, that I am surprised to find a gentleman of your
opinions in habits of intimacy with Mr. Maxwell of Summertrees
and Mr. Redgauntlet, and the medium of conducting the intercourse
betwixt them.'
'Pardon me, sir,' replied Alan Fairford; 'I do not aspire to the
honour of being reputed their confidant or go-between. My
concern with those gentlemen is limited to one matter of
business, dearly interesting to me, because it concerns the
safety--perhaps the life--of my dearest friend.'
'Sit still, young man,' said the father, with the same tone of
authority which reigned in his whole manner, although mingled
with stately courtesy. 'You are in no danger--my character shall
be a pledge for your safety. By whom do you suppose these words
have been written?'
'It may be so,' said Alan, extremely angry; 'but though you may
be these gentlemen's father confessor, you are not mine; and in
breaking the seal of a letter entrusted to my care, you have done
me'--
'As you regard your own safety,' said the priest, 'forbear all
injurious expressions, and all menacing gestures. I am not one
who can be threatened or insulted with impunity; and there are
enough within hearing to chastise any injury or affront offered
to me, in case I may think it unbecoming to protect or avenge
myself with my own hand.'
'What think you, young man, of the danger you have been about to
encounter so willingly?'
'I should not perhaps name it to you, whose own safety may be
implicated.'
'I understand you,' answered the father; 'you would appeal to the
existing government? That can at no rate be permitted--we will
rather detain you at Fairladies by compulsion.'
'You will probably,' said Fairford, 'first weigh the risk of such
a proceeding in a free country.'
'And if you apply to a magistrate, young man, you will bring ruin
on these hospitable ladies, to whom, in all human probability,
you owe your life. You cannot obtain a warrant for your purpose,
without giving a clear detail of all the late scenes through
which you have passed. A magistrate would oblige you to give a
complete account of yourself, before arming you with his
authority against a third party; and in giving such an account,
the safety of these ladies will necessarily be compromised. A
hundred spies have had, and still have, their eyes upon this
mansion; but God will protect his own.'--He crossed himself
devoutly, and then proceeded,--'You can take an hour to think of
your best plan, and I will pledge myself to forward it thus far,
provided it be not asking you to rely more on my word than your
prudence can warrant. You shall go to Redgauntlet,--I name him
plainly, to show my confidence in you,--and you shall deliver him
this letter of Mr. Maxwell's, with one from me, in which I will
enjoin him to set your friend at liberty, or at least to make no
attempts upon your own person, either by detention or otherwise.
If you can trust me thus far,' he said, with a proud emphasis on
the words 'I will on my side see you depart from this place with
the most perfect confidence that you will not return armed with
powers to drag its inmates to destruction. You are young and
inexperienced--bred to a profession also which sharpens
suspicion, and gives false views of human nature. I have seen
much of the world, and have known better than most men how far
mutual confidence is requisite in managing affairs of
consequence.'
'You must then, for the safety of all parties, remain for some
days an inhabitant of Fairladies, where we have the means of
detaining you, which self-preservation will in that case compel
us to make use of. Your captivity will be short; for matters
cannot long remain as they are. The cloud must soon rise, or it
must sink upon us for ever. BENEDICITE!'
Having thus made up his mind, Alan waited anxiously for the
expiration of the hour which had been allowed him for
deliberation. He was not kept on the tenter-hooks of impatience
an instant longer than the appointed moment arrived, for, even as
the clock struck, Ambrose appeared at the door of the gallery,
and made a sign that Alan should follow him. He did so, and
after passing through some of the intricate avenues common in old
houses, was ushered into a small apartment, commodiously fitted
up, in which he found Father Buonaventure reclining on a couch,
in the attitude of a man exhausted by fatigue or indisposition.
On a small table beside him, a silver embossed salver sustained a
Catholic book of prayer, a small flask of medicine, a cordial,
and a little tea-cup of old china. Ambrose did not enter the
room--he only bowed profoundly, and closed the door with the
least possible noise, so soon as Fairford had entered.
'Sit down, young man,' said the father, with the same air of
condescension which had before surprised, and rather offended
Fairford. 'You have been ill, and I know too well by my own case
that indisposition requires indulgence. Have you,' he continued,
so soon as he saw him seated, 'resolved to remain, or to depart?'
'To depart,' said Alan, 'under the agreement that you will
guarantee my safety with the extraordinary person who has
conducted himself in such a lawless manner toward my friend,
Darsie Latimer.'
'GOOD FRIEND,
'We send you hither a young man desirous to know the situation of
your ward, since he came under your paternal authority, and
hopeful of dealing with you for having your relative put at
large. This we recommend to your prudence, highly disapproving,
at the same time, of any force or coercion when such can be
avoided, and wishing, therefore, that the bearer's negotiation
may be successful. At all rates, however, the bearer hath our
pledged word for his safety and freedom, which, therefore, you
are to see strictly observed, as you value our honour and your
own. We further wish to converse with you, with as small loss of
time as may be, having matters of the utmost confidence to
impart. For this purpose we desire you to repair hither with all
haste, and thereupon we bid you heartily farewell.
P. B.'
'You will understand, sir,' said the father, when he saw that
Alan had perused his letter, 'that, by accepting charge of this
missive, you bind yourself to try the effect of it before having
recourse to any legal means, as you term them, for your friend's
release.'
'Well, I trust you,' said the father. 'I will now tell you that
an express, dispatched by me last night, has, I hear, brought
Redgauntlet to a spot many miles nearer this place, where he will
not find it safe to attempt any violence on your friend, should
he be rash enough to follow the advice of Mr. Maxwell of
Summertrees rather than my commands. We now understand each
other.'
He extended his hand towards Alan, who was about to pledge his
faith in the usual form by grasping it with his own, when the
father drew back hastily. Ere Alan had time to comment upon this
repulse, a small side-door, covered with tapestry, was opened;
the hangings were drawn aside, and a lady, as if by sudden
apparition, glided into the apartment. It was neither of the
Misses Arthuret, but a woman in the prime of life, and in the
full-blown expansion of female beauty, tall, fair, and commanding
in her aspect. Her locks, of paly gold, were taught to fall over
a brow, which, with the stately glance of the large, open, blue
eyes, might have become Juno herself; her neck and bosom were
admirably formed, and of a dazzling whiteness. She was rather
inclined to EMBONPOINT, but not more than became her age, of
apparently thirty years. Her step was that of a queen, but it
was of Queen Vashti, not Queen Esther--the bold and commanding,
not the retiring beauty.
'My pleasure, sir,' she continued, 'which always keeps exact pace
with my duty. I had heard you were unwell--let me hope it is
only business which produces this seclusion.'
'That young man?' she said, bending her large and serious eye on
Alan Fairford, as if she had been for the first time aware of his
presence,--'may I ask who he is?'
'After he is gone may be too late,' said the lady; 'and what is
his presence to me, when your safety is at stake? He is the
heretic lawyer whom those silly fools, the Arthurets, admitted
into this house at a time when they should have let their own
father knock at the door in vain, though the night had been a
wild one. You will not surely dismiss him?'
'Your own impatience can alone make that step perilous,' said the
father; 'I have resolved to take it--do not let your indiscreet
zeal, however excellent its motive, add any unnecessary risk to
the transaction.'
'The visit we have been just honoured with, my young friend, has
given you,' he said, 'more secrets to keep than I would have
wished you burdened with. The lady is a person of condition--of
rank and fortune--but nevertheless is so circumstanced that the
mere fact of her being known to be in this country would occasion
many evils. I should wish you to observe secrecy on this
subject, even to Redgauntlet or Maxwell, however much I trust
them in all that concerns my own affairs.'
'You will do well, sir, and I thank you,' said the father,
throwing much dignity into the expression of obligation which he
meant to convey. 'The time may perhaps come when you will learn
what it is to have obliged one of my condition. As to the lady,
she has the highest merit, and nothing can be said of her justly
which would not redound to her praise. Nevertheless--in short,
sir, we wander at present as in a morning mist--the sun will, I
trust, soon rise and dispel it, when all that now seems
mysterious will be fully revealed--or it will sink into rain,' he
added, in a solemn tone, 'and then explanation will be of little
consequence.--Adieu, sir; I wish you well.'
Bidding adieu to Ambrose, our young lawyer mounted, and rode down
the avenue, often looking back to the melancholy and neglected
dwelling in which he had witnessed such strange scenes, and
musing upon the character of its mysterious inmates, especially
the noble and almost regal-seeming priest, and the beautiful but
capricious dame, who, if she was really Father Buonaventure's
penitent, seemed less docile to the authority of the church than,
as Alan conceived, the Catholic discipline permitted. He could
not indeed help being sensible that the whole deportment of these
persons differed much from his preconceived notions of a priest
and devotee. Father Buonaventure, in particular, had more
natural dignify and less art and affectation in his manner, than
accorded with the idea which Calvinists were taught to entertain
of that wily and formidable person, a Jesuitical missionary.
'Your worship should know better than I,' said Dick Gardener;
'nevertheless, I have a notion you are going where all you
Scotsmen should be sent, whether you will or no.'
'Why, no. That is a road which you may travel as heretics; but
as Scotsmen, I would only send you three-fourths of the way--and
that is back to Scotland again--always craving your honour's
pardon.'
CHAPTER XVII
NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER
Our history must now, as the old romancers wont to say, 'leave to
tell' of the quest of Alan Fairford, and instruct our readers of
the adventures which befell Darsie Latimer, left as he was in the
precarious custody of his self-named tutor, the Laird of the
Lochs of Solway, to whose arbitrary pleasure he found it
necessary for the present to conform himself.
The metamorphosis was then complete; for the fair reader must be
informed, that in those rude times, the ladies, when they
honoured the masculine dress by assuming any part of it, wore
just such hats, coats, and waistcoats as the male animals
themselves made use of, and had no notion of the elegant
compromise betwixt male and female attire, which has now
acquired, PAR EXCELLENCE, the name of a HABIT. Trolloping things
our mothers must have looked, with long square-cut coats, lacking
collars, and with waistcoats plentifully supplied with a length
of pocket, which hung far downwards from the middle. But then
they had some advantage from the splendid colours, lace, and gay
embroidery which masculine attire then exhibited; and, as happens
in many similar instances, the finery of the materials made
amends for the want of symmetry and grace of form in the garments
themselves. But this is a digression.
'It is time you two should know each other better. I promised
you my confidence, Darsie, and the time is come for reposing it.
But first we will have our breakfast; and then, when once more in
the saddle, I will tell you that which it is necessary that you
should know. Salute Lilias, Darsie.'
And yet it was pity for her too--she was a very pretty young
woman--his fancy had scarcely overrated her in that respect--and
the slight derangement of the beautiful brown locks which escaped
in natural ringlets from under her riding-hat, with the bloom
which exercise had brought into her cheek, made her even more
than usually fascinating. Redgauntlet modified the sternness of
his look when it was turned towards her, and in addressing her,
used a softer tone than his usual deep bass. Even the grim
features of Cristal Nixon relaxed when he attended on her, and it
was then, if ever, that his misanthropical visage expressed some
sympathy with the rest of humanity.
Sometimes he was tempted to think that his own merits had, even
during the short intervals when they had seen each other, secured
such a hold of the affections of a young person who had probably
been bred up in ignorance of the world and its forms that she was
unable to conceal her partiality. Sometimes he suspected that
she acted by her guardian's order, who, aware that he, Darsie,
was entitled to a considerable fortune, might have taken this
bold stroke to bring about a marriage betwixt him and so near a
relative.
Cristal went to the door, and presently returned and said to his
master, in a voice as harsh as his features, 'Gilbert Gregson is
coming, his horse as white with foam as if a fiend had ridden
him.'
Redgauntlet threw from him the plate on which he had been eating,
and hastened towards the door of the barn, which the courier at
that moment entered; a smart jockey with a black velvet hunting-
cap, and a broad belt drawn tight round his waist, to which was
secured his express-bag. The variety of mud with which he was
splashed from cap to spur showed he had had a rough and rapid
ride. He delivered a letter to Mr. Redgauntlet, with an
obeisance, and then retired to the end of the barn, where the
other attendants were sitting or lying upon the straw, in order
to get some refreshment.
Redgauntlet broke the letter open with haste, and read it with
anxious and discomposed looks. On a second perusal, his
displeasure seemed to increase, his brow darkened, and was
distinctly marked with the fatal sign peculiar to his family and
house. Darsie had never before observed his frown bear such a
close resemblance to the shape which tradition assigned it.
Redgauntlet held out the open letter with one hand, and struck it
with the forefinger of the other, as, in a suppressed and
displeased tone, he said to Cristal Nixon, 'Countermanded--
ordered northward once more! 'Northward, when all our hopes lie
to the south--a second Derby direction, when we turned our back
on glory, and marched in quest of ruin!'
Cristal Nixon took the letter and ran it over, then returned it
to his master with the cold observation, 'A female influence
predominates.'
In two minutes they heard him ride off from the door of the barn,
followed at speed by two of the armed men of his party.
The commands of Cristal Nixon, in the meanwhile, put all the
remainder of the party in motion, but the laird himself was long
out of sight ere they were in readiness to resume their journey.
When at length they set out, Darsie was accommodated with a horse
and side-saddle, instead of being obliged to resume his place on
the pillion behind the detestable Nixon. He was obliged,
however, to retain his riding-skirt, and to reassume his mask.
Yet, notwithstanding this disagreeable circumstance, and although
he observed that they gave him the heaviest and slowest horse of
the party, and that, as a further precaution against escape, he
was closely watched on every side, yet riding in company with the
pretty Lilias was an advantage which overbalanced these
inconveniences.
The truth is, perhaps, the lover's pleasure, like that of the
hunter, is in the chase; and that the brightest beauty loses half
its merit, as the fairest flower its perfume, when the willing
hand can reach it too easily. There must be doubt--there must be
danger--there must be difficulty; and if, as the poet says, the
course of ardent affection never does run smooth, it is perhaps
because, without some intervening obstacle, that which is called
the romantic passion of love, in its high poetical character and
colouring can hardly have an existence--any more than there can
be a current in a river without the stream being narrowed by
steep banks, or checked by opposing rocks.
Let not those, however, who enter into a union for life without
those embarrassments which delight a Darsie Latimer, or a Lydia
Languish, and which are perhaps necessary to excite an
enthusiastic passion in breasts more firm than theirs, augur
worse of their future happiness because their own alliance is
formed under calmer auspices. Mutual esteem, an intimate
knowledge of each other's character, seen, as in their case,
undisguised by the mists of too partial passion--a suitable
proportion of parties in rank and fortune, in taste and pursuits
--are more frequently found in a marriage of reason, than in a
union of romantic attachment; where the imagination, which
probably created the virtues and accomplishments with which it
invested the beloved object, is frequently afterwards employed in
magnifying the mortifying consequences of its own delusion, and
exasperating all the stings of disappointment. Those who follow
the banners of Reason are like the well-disciplined battalion,
which, wearing a more sober uniform and making a less dazzling
show than the light troops commanded by imagination, enjoy more
safety, and even more honour, in the conflicts of human life.
All this, however, is foreign to our present purpose.
'I am glad you have at length spoken,' she said, 'though I owe it
is more coldly than I expected. MISS Lilias! DEIGN to take
interest! In whom, dear Darsie, CAN I take interest but in you;
and why do you put this barrier of ceremony betwixt us, whom
adverse circumstances have already separated for such a length of
time?'
'Surely,' she replied; 'but were it not as easy for you to have
said, to your own only sister?'
'And you did NOT know it, then?' said she. 'I thought your
reception of me was cold and indifferent!'
A kind and cordial embrace took place betwixt the relatives; and
so light was Darsie's spirit, that he really felt himself more
relieved, by getting quit of the embarrassments of the last half-
hour, during which he conceived himself in danger of being
persecuted by the attachment of a forward girl, than disappointed
by the vanishing of so many day-dreams as he had been in the
habit of encouraging during the time when the green-mantled
maiden was goddess of his idolatry. He had been already flung
from his romantic Pegasus, and was too happy at length to find
himself with bones unbroken, though with his back on the ground.
He was, besides, with all his whims and follies, a generous,
kind-hearted youth, and was delighted to acknowledge so beautiful
and amiable a relative, and to assure her in the warmest terms of
his immediate affection and future protection, so soon as they
should be extricated from their present situation. Smiles and
tears mingled on Lilias's cheeks, like showers and sunshine in
April weather.
'Alas!' said Darsie, 'I know so little of our family story, that
I almost doubted that I belonged to the House of Redgauntlet,
although the chief of the family himself intimated so much to
me.'
'The chief of the family!' said Lilias. 'You must know little
of your own descent indeed, if you mean my uncle by that
expression. You yourself, my dear Darsie, are the heir and
representative of our ancient House, for our father was the elder
brother--that brave and unhappy Sir Henry Darsie Redgauntlet, who
suffered at Carlisle in the year 1746. He took the name of
Darsie, in conjunction with his own, from our mother, heiress to
a Cumberland family of great wealth and antiquity, of whose large
estates you are the undeniable heir, although those of your
father have been involved in the general doom of forfeiture. But
all this must be necessarily unknown to you.'
'And you knew not that I was your sister?' said Lilias. 'No
wonder you received me so coldly. What a strange, wild, forward
young person you must have thought me--mixing myself in the
fortunes of a stranger whom I had only once spoken to--
corresponding with him by signs--Good Heaven! what can you have
supposed me?'
'I saw that with concern, and fain I would have warned you,'
answered Lilias; 'but I was closely watched, and before I could
find or make an opportunity of coming to a full explanation with
you on a subject so agitating, I was forced to leave the room.
What I did say was, you may remember, a caution to leave the
southern border, for I foresaw what has since happened. But
since my uncle has had you in his power, I never doubted he had
communicated to you our whole family history.'
'He has left me to learn it from you, Lilias; and assure yourself
that I will hear it with more pleasure from your lips than from
his. I have no reason to be pleased with his conduct towards
me.'
'Of that,' said Lilias, 'you will judge better when you have
heard what I have to tell you;' and she began her communication
in the following manner.
CHAPTER XVIII
'I need only say, then,' proceeded Lilias, 'that our father and
uncle felt the family doom in its full extent. They were both
possessed of considerable property, which was largely increased
by our father's marriage, and were both devoted to the service of
the unhappy House of Stuart; but (as our mother at least
supposed) family considerations might have withheld her husband
from joining openly in the affair of 1745, had not the high
influence which the younger brother possessed over the elder,
from his more decided energy of character, hurried him along with
himself into that undertaking.
'You were not, then, born when my father suffered?' said Darsie.
'I have some recollection of the scuffle which you mention,' said
Darsie; 'and I think it was my uncle himself (since my uncle he
is) who recalled the circumstance to my mind on a late occasion.
I can now account for the guarded seclusion under which my poor
mother lived--for her frequent tears, her starts of hysterical
alarm, and her constant and deep melancholy. Poor lady! what a
lot was hers, and what must have been her feelings when it
approached to a close!'
'It was then that she adopted,' said Lilias, 'every precaution
her ingenuity could suggest, to keep your very existence
concealed from the person whom she feared--nay, from yourself;
for she dreaded, as she is said often to have expressed herself,
that the wildfire blood of Redgauntlet would urge you to unite
your fortunes to those of your uncle, who was well known still to
carry on political intrigues, which most other persons had
considered as desperate. It was also possible that he, as well
as others, might get his pardon, as government showed every year
more lenity towards the remnant of the Jacobites, and then he
might claim the custody of your person, as your legal guardian.
Either of these events she considered as the direct road to your
destruction.'
'I wonder she had not claimed the protection of Chancery for me,'
said Darsie; 'or confided me to the care of some powerful
friend.'
So saying, she held out her hand to her brother, who grasped it
with a fondness of pressure very different from the manner in
which they first clasped hands that morning. There was a
moment's pause, while the hearts of both were overflowing with a
feeling of natural affection, to which circumstances had hitherto
rendered them strangers.
'The former is none of the most interesting, nor the latter the
most safe or agreeable,' answered Lilias; 'but now, my dearest
brother, I shall have the inestimable support of your countenance
and affection; and were I but sure that we could weather the
formidable crisis which I find so close at hand, I should have
little apprehensions for the future.'
'Let me know,' said Darsie, 'what our present situation is; and
rely upon my utmost exertions both in your defence and my own.
For what reason can my uncle desire to detain me a prisoner? If
in mere opposition to the will of my mother, she has long been no
more; and I see not why he should wish, at so much trouble and
risk, to interfere with the free will of one, to whom a few
months will give a privilege of acting for himself, with which he
will have no longer any pretence to interfere.'
'More so, perhaps,' replied Darsie; 'for the nearer the church--
the proverb is somewhat musty. But how did these liberal
opinions of yours agree with the very opposite prejudices of my
uncle?'
'They would have agreed like fire and water,' answered Lilias,
'had I suffered mine to become visible; but as that would have
subjected me to constant reproach and upbraiding, or worse, I
took great care to keep my own secret; so that occasional
censures for coldness, and lack of zeal for the good cause, were
the worst I had to undergo; and these were bad enough.'
'I applaud your caution,' said Darsie.
'After I had been many a long year at the convent, I was removed
from thence, and placed with a meagre old Scottish lady of high
rank, the daughter of an unfortunate person whose head had in the
year 1715 been placed on Temple Bar. She subsisted on a small
pension from the French Court, aided by an occasional gratuity
from the Stuarts; to which the annuity paid for my board formed a
desirable addition. She was not ill-tempered, nor very covetous
--neither beat me nor starved me--but she was so completely
trammelled by rank and prejudices, so awfully profound in
genealogy, and so bitterly keen, poor lady, in British, politics,
that I sometimes thought it pity that the Hanoverians, who
murdered, as she used to tell me, her poor dear father, had left
his dear daughter in the land of the living. Delighted,
therefore, was I, when my uncle made his appearance, and abruptly
announced his purpose of conveying me to England. My extravagant
joy at the idea of leaving Lady Rachel Rougedragon was somewhat
qualified by observing the melancholy look, lofty demeanour, and
commanding tone of my near relative. He held more communication
with me on the journey, however, than consisted with his taciturn
demeanour in general, and seemed anxious to ascertain my tone of
character, and particularly in point of courage. Now, though I
am a tamed Redgauntlet, yet I have still so much of our family
spirit as enables me to be as composed in danger as most of my
sex; and upon two occasions in the course of our journey--a
threatened attack by banditti, and the overturn of our carriage--
I had the fortune so to conduct myself, as to convey to my uncle
a very favourable idea of my intrepidity. Probably this
encouraged him to put in execution the singular scheme which he
had in agitation.
'They were both in full dress, and my uncle, taking a bundle from
Nixon, said to me, "Lilias, I am come to carry you to see a grand
ceremony--put on as hastily as you can the dress you will find in
that parcel, and prepare to attend me." I found a female dress,
splendid and elegant, but somewhat bordering upon the antique
fashion. It might be that of England, I thought, and I went to
my apartment full of curiosity, and dressed myself with all
speed.
'We left the house together, and such was their knowledge of the
lanes, courts, and bypaths, that though there was the roar of a
multitude in the broad streets, those which we traversed were
silent and deserted; and the strollers whom we met, tired of
gazing upon gayer figures, scarcely honoured us with a passing
look, although, at any other time, we should, among these vulgar
suburbs, have attracted a troublesome share of observation. We
crossed at length a broad street, where many soldiers were on
guard, while others, exhausted with previous duty, were eating,
drinking, smoking, and sleeping beside their piled arms.
'"I could not conceive his meaning; but, in the excited state of
mind in which I beheld him, I was convinced that disobedience on
my part would lead to some wild explosion. I felt, from the
emergency of the occasion, a sudden presence of mind, and
resolved to do anything that might avert violence and bloodshed.
I was not long held in suspense. A loud flourish of trumpets and
the voice of heralds were mixed with the clatter of horses'
hoofs, while a champion, armed at all points like those I had
read of in romances, attended by squires, pages, and the whole
retinue of chivalry, pranced forward, mounted upon a barbed
steed. His challenge, in defiance of all who dared impeach the
title of the new sovereign, was recited aloud--once, and again.
'I could not see how this was to be done, as we were surrounded
by people on all sides. But, at the third sounding of the
trumpets, a lane opened as if by word of command, betwixt me and
the champion, and my uncle's voice said, "Now, Lilias, NOW!"
'With a swift and yet steady step, and with a presence of mind for
which I have never since been able to account, I discharged the
perilous commission. I was hardly seen, I believe, as I
exchanged the pledges of battle, and in an instant retired.
"Nobly done, my girl!" said my uncle, at whose side I found
myself, shrouded as I was before, by the interposition of the
bystanders. "Cover our retreat, gentlemen," he whispered to
those around him.
'Room was made for us to approach the wall, which seemed to open,
and we were again involved in the dark passages through which we
had formerly passed. In a small anteroom, my uncle stopped, and
hastily muffling me in a mantle which was lying there, we passed
the guards--threaded the labyrinth of empty streets and courts,
and reached our retired lodgings without attracting the least
attention.'
'But you may temporize,' said Lilias, upon whom the idea of her
uncle's displeasure made evidently a strong impression,--'you may
temporize, as most of the gentry in this country do, and let the
bubble burst of itself; for it is singular how few of them
venture to oppose my uncle directly. I entreat you to avoid
direct collision with him. To hear you, the head of the House of
Redgauntlet, declare against the family of Stuart, would either
break his heart, or drive him to some act of desperation.'
'Alas!' said she, 'I had forgotten that danger. I have grown
familiar with perilous intrigues, as the nurses in a pest-house
are said to become accustomed to the air around them, till they
forget even that it is noisome.'
'And yet,' said Darsie, 'if I could free myself from him without
coming to an open rupture. Tell me, Lilias, do you think it
possible that he can have any immediate attempt in view?'
'To confess the truth,' answered Lilias, 'I cannot doubt that he
has. There has been an unusual bustle among the Jacobites of
late. They have hopes, as I told you, from circumstances
unconnected with their own strength. Just before you came to the
country, my uncle's desire to find you out became, if possible,
more eager than ever--he talked of men to be presently brought
together, and of your name and influence for raising them. At
this very time your first visit to Brokenburn took place. A
suspicion arose in my uncle's mind, that you might be the youth
he sought, and it was strengthened by papers and letters which
the rascal Nixon did not hesitate to take from your pocket. Yet
a mistake might have occasioned a fatal explosion; and my uncle
therefore posted to Edinburgh to follow out the clue he had
obtained, and fished enough of information from old Mr. Fairford
to make him certain that you were the person he sought.
Meanwhile, and at the expense of some personal and perhaps too
bold exertion, I endeavoured, through your friend young Fairford,
to put you on your guard.'
'I do not wonder that my warning was fruitless,' said she; 'the
thing was doomed to be. Besides, your escape would have been
difficult. You were dogged the whole time you were at the
Shepherd's Bush and at Mount Sharon, by a spy who scarcely ever
left you.'
'Like enough; for he has a head and hand for any villany. My
uncle was very angry about it; for though the riot was made to
have an opportunity of carrying you off in the confusion, as well
as to put the fishermen at variance with the public law, it would
have been his last thought to have injured a hair of your head.
But Nixon has insinuated himself into all my uncle's secrets, and
some of these are so dark and dangerous, that though there are
few things he would not dare, I doubt if he dare quarrel with
him. And yet I know that of Cristal would move my uncle to pass
his sword through his body.'
'The old, brutal desperado, whose face and mind are a libel upon
human nature, has had the insolence to speak to his master's
niece as one whom he was at liberty to admire; and when I turned
on him with the anger and contempt he merited, the wretch
grumbled out something, as if he held the destiny of our family
in his hand.'
'I thank you, Lilias,' said Darsie, eagerly,--'I thank you with
all my heart for this communication. I have blamed myself as a
Christian man for the indescribable longing I felt from the first
moment I saw that rascal, to send a bullet through his head; and
now you have perfectly accounted for and justified this very
laudable wish. I wonder my uncle, with the powerful sense you
describe him to be possessed of, does not see through such a
villain.'
Lilias checked her horse without speaking, but not until she had
given her brother an expressive look, recommending caution; to
which he replied by a signal indicating that he understood and
would comply with her request.
CHAPTER XIX
'I have already said, Mr. Nixon, answered Darsie, 'that I will
canvass those matters of which my sister has informed me, with my
uncle himself, and with no other person.'
'If the warning is really kind, Mr. Nixon,' said the young man,
'I will hear it thankfully; and indeed, if otherwise, I must
listen to it whether I will or no, since I have at present no
choice of company or of conversation.'
'But we are not in France,' said poor Darsie, through whose blood
ran a cold shivering at the idea of a French prison.
'A fast-sailing lugger will soon bring you there though, snug
stowed under hatches, like a cask of moonlight.'
'But the French are at peace with us,' said Darsie, 'and would
not dare'--
'Why, who would ever hear of you?' interrupted Nixon; 'do you
imagine that a foreign court would call you up for judgement, and
put the sentence of imprisonment in the COURRIER DE L'EUROPE, as
they do at the Old Bailey? No, no, young gentleman--the gates of
the Bastille, and of Mont Saint Michel, and the Castle of
Vincennes, move on d--d easy hinges when they let folk in--not
the least jar is heard. There are cool cells there for hot
heads--as calm, and quiet, and dark, as you could wish in Bedlam
--and the dismissal comes when the carpenter brings the
prisoner's coffin, and not sooner.'
'I'll tell you that when I am there,' said Nixon, and, checking
his horse, fell back to the rear of the little party.
'Three, and have letters from many more. They are unanimous on
the subject you wot of--and the point must be conceded to them,
or, far as the matter has gone, it will go no further.'
'You will hardly bring the father to stoop to his flock,' said
Cristal, with a sneer.
'I did prosecute the study of law for a year or two, said Darsie,
'but I found I had neither taste nor talents for the science.'
'I will not suppose,' said Hugh Redgauntlet, after a pause, that
you are either so dull as not to comprehend the import of my
words--or so dastardly as to be dismayed by my proposal--or so
utterly degenerate from the blood and sentiments of your
ancestors, as not to feel my summons as the horse hears the war-
trumpet.'
'I will not pretend to misunderstand you, sir,' said Darsie; 'but
an enterprise directed against a dynasty now established for
three reigns requires strong arguments, both in point of justice
and of expediency, to recommend it to men of conscience and
prudence.'
'I will not,' said Redgauntlet, while his eyes sparkled with
anger,--'I will not hear you speak a word against the justice of
that enterprise, for which your oppressed country calls with the
voice of a parent, entreating her children for aid--or against
that noble revenge which your father's blood demands from his
dishonoured grave. His skull is yet standing over the Rikargate,
[The northern gate of Carlisle was long garnished with the heads
of the Scottish rebels executed in 1746.] and even its bleak and
mouldered jaws command you to be a man. I ask you, in the name
of God and of your country, will you draw your sword and go with
me to Carlisle, were it but to lay your father's head, now the
perch of the obscene owl and carrion crow and the scoff of every
ribald clown, in consecrated earth as befits his long ancestry?'
Darsie, unprepared to answer an appeal urged with so much
passion, and not doubting a direct refusal would cost him his
liberty or life, was again silent.
'I see,' said his uncle, in a more composed tone, 'that it is not
deficiency of spirit, but the grovelling habits of a confined
education, among the poor-spirited class you were condemned to
herd with, that keeps you silent. You scarce yet believe
yourself a Redgauntlet; your pulse has not yet learned the
genuine throb that answers to the summons of honour and of
patriotism.'
Darsie was not sorry to reply that his respect for the person of
his relation would induce him to listen to all which he had to
apprise him of, before he formed any definite resolution upon the
weighty subjects of deliberation which he proposed to him.
'Deliberation!' repeated Redgauntlet, impatiently; 'and yet it
is not ill said. I wish there had been more warmth in thy reply,
Arthur; but I must recollect, were an eagle bred in a falcon's
mew and hooded like a reclaimed hawk, he could not at first gaze
steadily on the sun. Listen to me, my dearest Arthur. The state
of this nation no more implies prosperity, than the florid colour
of a feverish patient is a symptom of health. All is false and
hollow. The apparent success of Chatham's administration has
plunged the country deeper in debt than all the barren acres of
Canada are worth, were they as fertile as Yorkshire--the dazzling
lustre of the victories of Minden and Quebec have been dimmed by
the disgrace of the hasty peace--by the war, England, at immense
expense, gained nothing but honour, and that she has gratuitously
resigned. Many eyes, formerly cold and indifferent, are now
looking towards the line of our ancient and rightful monarchs, as
the only refuge in the approaching storm--the rich are alarmed--
the nobles are disgusted--the populace are inflamed--and a band
of patriots, whose measures are more safe than their numbers are
few, have resolved to set up King Charles's standard,'
'The paper contains indeed the names of many that are great and
noble,' replied Darsie, after perusing it; 'but'--
'But what?' asked his uncle, impatiently; 'do you doubt the
ability of those nobles and gentlemen to furnish the aid in men
and money at which they are rated?'
'But, my dear uncle,' added Darsie, 'I hope for your sake that
the other individuals whose names are here written, have had more
acquaintance with your plan than I have been indulged with.'
Again Darsie perused the paper, and felt himself still less
inclined to believe that so many men of family and fortune were
likely to embark in an enterprise so fatal. It seemed as if some
rash plotter had put down at a venture the names of all whom
common report tainted with Jacobitism; or if it was really the
act of the individuals named, he suspected that they must be
aware of some mode of excusing themselves from compliance with
its purport. It was impossible, he thought, that Englishmen, of
large fortune, who had failed to join Charles when he broke into
England at the head of a victorious army, should have the least
thoughts of encouraging a descent when circumstances were so much
less propitious. He therefore concluded the enterprise would
fall to pieces of itself, and that his best way was, in the
meantime, to remain silent, unless the actual approach of a
crisis (which might, however, never arrive) should compel him to
give a downright refusal to his uncle's proposition; and if, in
the interim, some door for escape should be opened, he resolved
within himself not to omit availing himself of it.
Hugh Redgauntlet watched his nephew's looks for some time, and
then, as if arriving from some other process of reasoning at the
same conclusion, he said, 'I have told you, Sir Arthur, that I do
not urge your immediate accession to my proposal; indeed the
consequences of a refusal would be so dreadful to yourself, so
destructive to all the hopes which I have nursed, that I would
not risk, by a moment's impatience, the object of my whole life.
Yes, Arthur, I have been a self-denying hermit at one time--at
another, the apparent associate of outlaws and desperadoes--at
another, the subordinate agent of men whom I felt in every way my
inferiors--not for any selfish purpose of my own, no, not even to
win for myself the renown of being the principal instrument in
restoring my king and freeing my country. My first wish on earth
is for that restoration and that freedom--my next, that my
nephew, the representative of my house and of the brother of my
love, may have the advantage and the credit of all my efforts in
the good cause. But,' he added, darting on Darsie one of his
withering frowns, 'if Scotland and my father's house cannot stand
and flourish together, then perish the very name of Redgauntlet!
perish the son of my brother, with every recollection of the
glories of my family, of the affections of my youth, rather than
my country's cause should be injured in the tithing of a barley-
corn! The spirit of Sir Alberick is alive within me at this
moment,' he continued, drawing up his stately form and sitting
erect in his saddle, while he pressed his finger against his
forehead; 'and if you yourself crossed my path in opposition, I
swear, by the mark that darkens my brow, that a new deed should
be done--a new doom should be deserved!'
'You are mistaken, sir,' said Redgauntlet, turning short off, and
making a sign with his hand to Cristal, who hurried Darsie,
however unwillingly, into the house, whispering in his ear,
'Come, miss, let us have no making of acquaintance from the
windows. Ladies of fashion must be private. Show us a room,
Father Crackenthorp.'
'D--n thee,' said Nixon to Crackenthorp, 'would you have the lady
go through all the mob of the parish? Hast thou no more private
way to our sitting-room?'
'But the blind scraping scoundrel yonder,' said Nixon, 'how dared
you take such a rascal as that across your threshold at such a
time as this? If the squire should dream you have a thought of
peaching--I am only speaking for your good, Father Crackenthorp.'
'How, you impudent lump of tallow,' said Nixon, 'what do you mean
by that?'
'He may perhaps pistol you for some other reason, if you do not
obey mine,' said Lilias, composedly.
'You abuse your advantage over me, madam--I really dare not go--I
am on guard over this other miss here; and if I should desert my
post, my life were not worth five minutes' purchase.'
'Then know your post, sir,' said Lilias, 'and watch on the
outside of the door. You have no commission to listen to our
private conversation, I suppose? Begone, sir, without further
speech or remonstrance, or I will tell my uncle that which you
would have reason to repent be should know.'
'In the meantime,' said Darsie, 'I am happy to see that the
landlord of the house does not seem so devoted to him as I
apprehended; and this aids the hope of escape which I am
nourishing for you and for myself. O Lilias! the truest of
friends, Alan Fairford, is in pursuit of me, and is here at this
moment. Another humble, but, I think, faithful friend, is also
within these dangerous walls,'
Lilias laid her finger on her lips, and pointed to the door.
Darsie took the hint, lowered his voice, and informed her in
whispers of the arrival of Fairford, and that he believed he had
opened a communication with Wandering Willie. She listened with
the utmost interest, and had just begun to reply, when a loud
noise was heard in the kitchen, caused by several contending
voices, amongst which Darsie thought he could distinguish that of
Alan Fairford.
CHAPTER XX
'Never heard of such a thing, master,' said the landlord, and was
about to trudge onward; when the guest, detaining him, said, in a
strong Scottish tone, 'Ya will maybe have nae whey then, nor
buttermilk, nor ye couldna exhibit a souter's clod?'
'Then ye will have nae breakfast that will come within 'the
compass of a shilling Scots?'
'Sheep's head is a gude thing, for a' that,' replied the guest;
but not being spoken so loud as to offend his hospitable
entertainer, the interjection might pass for a private protest
against the scandal thrown out against the standing dish of
Caledonia.
'I prithee drink thy liquor, friend,' said the good Quaker; 'thou
meanest it in civility, but we care not for these idle fashions.'
'Thou mayst call for what thou wilt on thine own charges,
friend,' said Geddes; 'for myself, I willingly contribute to the
quenching of thy natural thirst; but I fear it were no such easy
matter to relieve thy acquired and artificial drought.'
This jest procured a shout of laughter, and, what was still more
acceptable than dry applause, a man who stood beside called out,
'Father Crackenthorp, bring a nipperkin of brandy. I'll bestow
a dram on this fellow, were it but for that very word.'
'Nay, friend,' answered Joshua, 'it went down thy throat, not
mine; and I have nothing to say about what concerns me not; but
if thou art a man of humanity, thou wilt not give this poor
creature the means of debauchery. Bethink thee that they will
spurn him from the door, as they would do a houseless and
masterless dog, and that he may die on the sands or on the
common. And if he has through thy means been rendered incapable
of helping himself, thou shalt not be innocent of his blood.'
'Well, thou shalt have the brandy, and be d--d to thee, if thou
wilt tell me what you are making here.'
'Seeking a young advocate chap that they ca' Alan Fairford, that
has played me a slippery trick, and ye maun ken a' about the
cause,' said Peter.
'I wish from my soul it were true,' said Ewart; 'but what the
devil put that in your head?'
'For my ain gude, and for his harm, to be sure,' said Peter.
'Think of his having left my cause in the dead-thraw between the
tyneing and the winning, and capering off into Cumberland here,
after a wild loup-the-tether lad they ca' Darsie Latimer.'
'Why, all I want to know from you, my friend, is, whether you are
seeking to do this Mr. Alan Fairford good or harm; because if you
come to do him good, I think you could maybe get speech of him--
and if to do him harm, I will take the liberty to give you a cast
across the Firth, with fair warning not to come back on such an
errand, lest worse come of it.'
The manner and language of Ewart were such that Joshua Geddes
resolved to keep cautious silence, till he could more plainly
discover whether he was likely to aid or impede him in his
researches after Darsie Latimer. He therefore determined to
listen attentively to what should pass between Peter and the
seaman, and to watch for an opportunity of questioning the
former, so soon as he should be separated from his new
acquaintance.
'I wad by no means,' said Peter Peebles, 'do any substantial harm
to the poor lad Fairford, who has had mony a gowd guinea of mine,
as weel as his father before him; but I wad hae him brought back
to the minding of my business and his ain; and maybe I wadna
insist further in my action of damages against him, than for
refunding the fees, and for some annual rent on the principal sum
due frae the day on which he should have recovered it for me,
plack and bawbee, at the great advising ; for ye are aware, that
is the least that I can ask NOMINE DAMNI; and I have nae thought
to break down the lad bodily a'thegither--we maun live and let
live--forgie and forget.'
'The deuce take me, friend Broadbrim,' said Nanty Ewart, looking
to the Quaker, 'if I can make out what this old scarecrow means.
If I thought it was fitting that Master Fairford should see him,
why perhaps it is a matter that could be managed. Do you know
anything about the old fellow?--you seemed to take some charge of
him just now.'
'No more than I should have done by any one in distress,' said
Geddes, not sorry to be appealed to; 'but I will try what I can
do to find out who he is, and what he is about in this country.
But are we not a little too public in this open room?'
'It's well thought of,' said Nanty; and at his command the
barmaid ushered the party into a side-booth, Peter attending them
in the instinctive hope that there would be more liquor drunk
among them before parting. They had scarce sat down in their new
apartment, when the sound of a violin was heard in the room which
they had just left.
'I'll awa back yonder,' said Peter, rising up again; 'yon's the
sound of a fiddle, and when there is music, there's ay something
ganging to eat or drink.'
'I am just going to order something here,' said the Quaker; 'but
in the meantime, have you any objection, my good friend, to tell
us your name?'
'Friend,' said the Quaker, 'it is not for thine own health,
seeing thou hast drunk enough already--however--here, handmaiden
--bring me a gill of sherry.'
'Sherry's but shilpit drink, and a gill's a sma' measure for twa
gentlemen to crack ower at their first acquaintance. But let us
see your sneaking gill of sherry,' said Poor Peter, thrusting
forth his huge hand to seize on the diminutive pewter measure,
which, according to the fashion of the time, contained the
generous liquor freshly drawn from the butt.
'Nay, hold, friend,' said Joshua, 'thou hast not yet told me what
name and surname I am to call thee by.'
'D--d sly in the Quaker,' said Nanty, apart, 'to make him pay for
his liquor before he gives it him. Now, I am such a fool, that I
should have let him get too drunk to open his mouth, before I
thought of asking him a question.'
'As Peter Peebles of the great plea of Poor Peter Peebles against
Plainstanes, ET PER CONTRA--if I am laird of naething else, I am
ay a DOMINUS LITIS.'
'Well, Mr. Burgess, tell me further, have you not some property
in the Gude Town?' continued Ewart.
'You have hit it, lad, though ye look not like a Covenanter,'
said Peter; 'we'll drink to its memory--(Hout! the heart's at
the mouth o' that ill-faur'd bit stoup already!)--it brought a
rent, reckoning from the crawstep to the groundsill, that ye
might ca' fourteen punds a year, forby the laigh cellar that was
let to Lucky Littleworth.'
'And do you not remember that you had a poor old lady for your
tenant, Mrs. Cantrips of Kittlebasket?' said Nanty, suppressing
his emotion with difficulty.
'Methinks, friend,' said the Quaker, 'thine own rags might teach
thee compassion for other people's nakedness.'
'She might live or die, for what I care,' answered Peter the
Cruel; 'what business have folk to do to live that canna live as
law will, and satisfy their just and lawful creditors?'
'And you--you that are now yourself trodden down in the very
kennel, are you not sorry for what you have done? Do you not
repent having occasioned the poor widow woman's death?'
'What for should I repent?' said Peter; 'the law was on my side
--a decreet of the bailies, followed by poinding, and an act of
warding--a suspension intented, and the letters found orderly
proceeded. I followed the auld rudas through twa courts--she
cost me mair money than her lugs were worth.'
'Off me? I defy ye!' said Peter. 'I take this honest man to
witness that if ye stir the neck of my collar, I will have my
action for stouthreif, spulzie, oppression, assault and battery.
Here's a bra' din, indeed, about an auld wife gaun to the grave,
a young limmer to the close-heads and causeway, and a sticket
stibbler [A student of divinity who has not been able to complete
his studies on theology.] to the sea instead of the gallows!'
'Now, by my soul,' said Nanty, 'this is too much! and since you
can feel no otherwise, I will try if I cannot beat some humanity
into your head and shoulders.'
CHAPTER XXI
'And did you dare, sir, to break the seal of a letter addressed
to me?' said Redgauntlet, not sorry, perhaps, to pick a quarrel
upon a point foreign to the tenor of the epistle.
'I certainly did hear the contents read over,' said Fairford;
'and they were such as to surprise me a good deal.'
'Now that,' said Redgauntlet, 'I hold to be pretty much the same,
IN FORO CONSCIENTIAE, as if you had broken the seal yourself. I
shall hold myself excused from entering upon further discourse
with a messenger so faithless; and you may thank yourself if your
journey has been fruitless.'
He then read the letter attentively, and for two or three minutes
was lost in thought, while some purpose of importance seemed to
have gathered and sit brooding upon his countenance. He held up
his finger towards his satellite, Cristal Nixon, who replied to
his signal with a prompt nod; and with one or two of the
attendants approached Fairford in such a manner as to make him
apprehensive they were about to lay hold of him.
'I beg pardon,' said the captain, sheathing his weapon--'I was a
little bit out of the way, to be sure; but to know the
provocation, a man must read my heart, and that I hardly dare to
do myself. But the wretch is safe from me. Heaven has done its
own vengeance on us both.'
Fairford ran over the affidavit and the warrant, and then
exclaimed once more, that it was an impudent imposition, and that
he would hold those who acted upon such a warrant liable in the
highest damages. 'I guess at your motive, Mr. Redgauntlet,' he
said, 'for acquiescing in so ridiculous a proceeding. But be
assured you will find that, in this country, one act of illegal
violence will not be covered or atoned for by practising another.
You cannot, as a man of sense and honour, pretend to say you
regard this as a legal warrant.'
'Did ever any one hear,' said Fairford, 'of an advocate being
compelled to return to his task, like a collier or a salter [See
Note 10.] who has deserted his master?'
'Hark ye, Mr. Fairford,' said Redgauntlet; 'I must here interrupt
you for your own sake. One word of betraying what you may have
seen, or what you may have suspected, and your seclusion is like
to have either a very distant or a very brief termination; in
either case a most undesirable one. At present, you are sure of
being at liberty in a very few days--perhaps much sooner.'
'And my friend,' said Alan Fairford, 'for whose sake I have run
myself into this danger, what is to become of him? Dark and
dangerous man!' he exclaimed, raising his voice, I will not be
again cajoled by deceitful promises'--
'Friend,' said he, 'thou dost more than thou canst answer. Thou
knowest me well, and thou art aware that in me thou hast a deeply
injured neighbour, who was dwelling beside thee in the honesty
and simplicity of his heart.'
The cry of 'Down with all warrants!' was popular in the ears of
the militia of the inn, and Nanty Ewart was no less so. Fishers,
ostlers, seamen, smugglers, began to crowd to the spot.
Crackenthorp endeavoured in vain to mediate. The attendants of
Redgauntlet began to handle their firearms; but their master
shouted to them to forbear, and, unsheathing his sword as quick
as lightning, he rushed on Ewart in the midst of his bravado, and
struck his weapon from his hand with such address and force, that
it flew three yards from him. Closing with him at the same
moment, he gave him a severe fall, and waved his sword over his
head, to show he was absolutely at his mercy.
'There, you drunken vagabond,' he said, 'I give you your life--
you are no bad fellow if you could keep from brawling among your
friends. But we all know Nanty Ewart,' he said to the crowd
around, with a forgiving laugh, which, joined to the awe his
prowess had inspired, entirely confirmed their wavering
allegiance.
They shouted, 'The laird for ever!' while poor Nanty, rising
from the earth, on whose lap he had been stretched so rudely,
went in quest of his hanger, lifted it, wiped it, and, as he
returned the weapon to the scabbard, muttered between his teeth,
'It is true they say of him, and the devil will stand his friend
till his hour come; I will cross him no more.'
'A prisoner, then, you must be,' said Redgauntlet. 'I have no
time to dispute the matter further with you. But tell me for
what you fix your eyes so attentively on yonder people of mine.'
'To speak the truth,' said the Quaker, 'I admire to behold among
them a little wretch of a boy called Benjie, to whom I think
Satan has given the power of transporting himself wheresoever
mischief is going forward; so that it may be truly said, there is
no evil in this land wherein he hath not a finger, if not a whole
hand.'
The boy, who saw their eyes fixed on him as they spoke, seemed
embarrassed, slid rather desirous of making his escape; but at a
signal from Redgauntlet he advanced, assuming the sheepish look
and rustic manner with which the jackanapes covered much
acuteness and roguery.
'How long have you been with the party, sirrah?' said
Redgauntlet.
'Since the raid on the stake-nets,' said Benjie, with his finger
in his mouth.
'I dauredna stay at hame for the constables,' replied the boy.
'Doing, sir? I dinna ken what ye ca' doing--I have been doing
naething,' said Benjie; then seeing something in Redgauntlet's
eye which was not to be trifled with, he added, 'Naething but
waiting on Maister Cristal Nixon.'
Cristal nodded.
CHAPTER XXII
NARRATIVE CONTINUED
'Your liberty shall be your own within half an hour from this
period--your friend shall be also set at freedom in due time--and
you yourself be permitted to have access to his place of
confinement.'
'This does not satisfy me,' said Darsie; 'I must see my friend
instantly; he is here, and he is here endangered on my account
only--I have heard violent exclamations--the clash of swords.
You will gain no point with me unless I have ocular demonstration
of his safety.'
Redgauntlet led them through one or two passages (for the house,
as we have before said, was very irregular, and built at
different times) until they entered an apartment, where a man
with shouldered carabine kept watch at the door, but readily
turned the key for their reception. In this room they found Alan
Fairford and the Quaker, apparently in deep conversation with
each other. They looked up as Redgauntlet and his party entered;
and Alan pulled off his hat and made a profound reverence, which
the young lady, who recognized him,--though, masked as she was,
he could not know her,--returned with some embarrassment, arising
probably from the recollection of the bold step she had taken in
visiting him.
Darsie longed to speak, but dared not. His uncle only said,
'Gentlemen, I know you are as anxious on Mr. Darsie Latimer's
account as he is upon yours. I am commissioned by him to inform
you, that he is as well as you are--I trust you will all meet
soon. Meantime, although I cannot suffer you to be at large, you
shall be as well treated as is possible under your temporary
confinement.'
Redgauntlet next led the way into a very small room; adjoining
which, but divided by a partition, was one of apparently larger
dimensions; for they heard the trampling of the heavy boots of
the period, as if several persons were walking to and fro and
conversing in low and anxious whispers.
So saying he took Darsie by the arm, and walked with him to the
next room--a large apartment, partly filled with miscellaneous
articles of commerce, chiefly connected with contraband trade;
where, among bales and barrels, sat, or walked to and fro,
several gentlemen, whose manners and looks seemed superior to the
plain riding dresses which they wore.
Mr. Redgauntlet, however, did not, or would not, see any such
marks of depression of spirit amongst his coadjutors, but met
them with cheerful countenance, and a warm greeting of welcome.
'Happy to meet you here, my lord,' he said, bowing low to a
slender young man. 'I trust you come with the pledges of your
noble father, of B--, and all that loyal house.--Sir Richard,
what news in the west? I am told you had two hundred men on foot
to have joined when the fatal retreat from Derby was commenced.
When the White Standard is again displayed, it shall not be
turned back so easily, either by the force of its enemies, or the
falsehood of its friends.--Doctor Grumball, I bow to the
representative of Oxford, the mother of learning and loyalty.--
Pengwinion, you Cornish chough, has this good wind blown you
north?--Ah, my brave Cambro-Britons, when was Wales last in the
race of honour?'
Redgauntlet bit his lip. 'I had hopes,' he said, 'that the
discourses I have held with most of you, from time to time, had
ripened into more maturity than your words imply, and that we
were here to execute as well as to deliberate; and for this we
stand prepared. I can raise five hundred men with my whistle.'
'Five hundred men!' said one of the Welsh squires; 'Cot bless
us! and pray you, what cood could five hundred men do?'
'All that the priming does for the cannon, Mr. Meredith,'
answered Redgauntlet; 'it will enable us to seize Carlisle, and
you know what our friends have engaged for in that case.'
'Nay,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'at least do not let us fall
under our old reproach of disagreeing among ourselves. What my
lord means, Redgauntlet, is, that we have this morning heard it
is uncertain whether you could even bring that body of men whom
you count upon; your countryman, Mr. MacKellar, seemed, just
before you came in, to doubt whether your people would rise in
any force, unless you could produce the authority of your
nephew.'
'In troth,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'it is the very keystone
of our enterprise, and the only condition upon which I myself and
others could ever have dreamt of taking up arms. No insurrection
which has not Charles Edward himself at its head, will, ever last
longer than till a single foot company of redcoats march to
disperse it.'
There was a deep pause. Those among the conspirators whom mere
habit, or a desire of preserving consistency, had engaged in the
affair, now saw with terror their retreat cut off; and others,
who at a distance had regarded the proposed enterprise as
hopeful, trembled when the moment of actually embarking in it was
thus unexpectedly and almost inevitably precipitated.
'I, at least,' said the young nobleman resolutely, and laying his
hand on his sword, 'will not be that coward. If Charles is come
to these shores, I will be the first to give him welcome, and to
devote my life and fortune to his service.'
'Before Cot,' said Mr. Meredith, 'I do not see that Mr.
Redgauntlet has left us anything else to do.'
'I trust,' said Dr. Grumball, 'that there are no Catholic priests
in his company. I would not intrude on the private conscience of
my sovereign, but, as an unworthy son of the Church of England,
it is my duty to consider her security.'
'He has no man with him but young --, as aide de camp, and a
single valet de chambre.'
Redgauntlet cast his eyes on the ground and replied, 'I am sorry
to say--he has.'
'In the same strong terms in which they were couched,' replied
Redgauntlet. 'I love his Majesty's cause more than I fear his
displeasure.'
'She puts his secrets into her work-bag,' said Maxwell; 'and out
they fly whenever she opens it. If I must hang, I would wish it
to be in somewhat a better rope than the string of a lady's
hussey.'
'Not I,' said Maxwell; 'let us fight for it, and let them win and
wear us; but to be betrayed by a brimstone like that'--
'God forbid!' said Sir Richard, hastily; 'and God forgive you,
Mr. Redgauntlet, for breathing such a thought. No! I for one
will, with all duty and humility, see him safe back to his
vessel, and defend him with my life against whosoever shall
assail him. But when I have seen his sails spread, my next act
will be to secure, if I can, my own safety, by retiring to my
house; or, if I find our engagement, as is too probable, has
taken wind, by surrendering myself to the next Justice of Peace,
and giving security that hereafter I shall live quiet, and submit
to the ruling powers.'
'I think Mr. Redgauntlet should make the explanation, said Lord
--. 'As he has, doubtless, done justice to our remonstrances by
communicating them to the king, no one can, with such propriety
and force, state the natural and inevitable consequence of their
being neglected.'
'An evasion, sir!' repeated Lord --, fiercely, 'I have borne too
much from you already, and this I will not endure. Favour me
with your company to the downs.'
'I could not have asked Mr. Redgauntlet to do so much,' said the
young nobleman, willingly accepting the hand which Redgauntlet
offered. 'I know no man living from whom I could take so much
reproof without a sense of degradation as from himself.'
'Let me then hope, my lord, that you will go with Sir Richard and
me to the presence. Your warm blood will heat our zeal--our
colder resolves will temper yours.
The young lord smiled, and shook his head. 'Alas! Mr.
Redgauntlet,' he said, 'I am ashamed to say, that in zeal you
surpass us all. But I will not refuse this mission, provided you
will permit Sir Arthur, your nephew, also to accompany us.'
'I rejoice, sire--and yet, alas! I must also grieve, to see you
once more on the British shores,' said Sir Richard Glendale, and
stopped short--a tumult of contradictory feelings preventing his
further utterance.
'My Lord --'s and mine are equally so,' said Sir Richard; 'but
you had in charge, Mr. Redgauntlet, to convey our request to his
Majesty, coupled with certain conditions.'
'There was, or should have been, something more than that in our
proposal, please your Majesty,' said Sir Richard. 'There was a
condition annexed to it.'
'Sire,' said Redgauntlet, kneeling on one knee, 'I see from Sir
Richard's countenance he deems it my fault that your Majesty
seems ignorant of what your subjects desired that I should
communicate to your Majesty. For Heaven's sake! for the sake of
all my past services and sufferings, leave not such a stain upon
my honour! The note, Number D, of which this is a copy,
referred to the painful subject to which Sir Richard again
directs your attention.'
'May it please your Majesty,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'I see
it must be my lot to speak unwilling truths; but believe me, I do
so with as much profound respect as deep regret. It is true, we
have called you to head a mighty undertaking, and that your
Majesty, preferring honour to safety, and the love of your
country to your own ease, has condescended to become our leader.
But we also pointed out as a necessary and indispensable
preparatory step to the achievement of our purpose--and, I must
say, as a positive condition of our engaging in it--that an
individual, supposed,--I presume not to guess how truly,--to have
your Majesty's more intimate confidence, and believed, I will not
say on absolute proof but upon the most pregnant suspicion, to be
capable of betraying that confidence to the Elector of Hanover,
should be removed from your royal household and society.'
'I am sorry for this,' said Redgauntlet; 'I hope both your
Majesty and Sir Richard will reconsider your resolutions, or
forbear this discussion, in a conjuncture so pressing. I trust
your Majesty will recollect that you are on hostile ground; that
our preparations cannot have so far escaped notice as to permit
us now with safety to retreat from our purpose; insomuch, that it
is with the deepest anxiety of heart I foresee even danger to
your own royal person, unless you can generously give your
subjects the satisfaction, which Sir Richard seems to think they
are obstinate in demanding,'
'And deep indeed your anxiety ought to be,' said the prince. 'Is
it in these circumstances of personal danger in which you expect
to overcome a resolution, which is founded on a sense of what is
due to me as a man or a prince? If the axe and scaffold were
ready before the windows of Whitehall, I would rather tread the
same path with my great-grandfather, than concede the slightest
point in which my honour is concerned.'
'And why do you not add,' said the prince, scornfully, 'that the
men who have been ready to assume arms in my behalf, will atone
for their treason to the Elector, by delivering me up to the fate
for which so many proclamations have destined me? Carry my head
to St. James's, gentlemen; you will do a more acceptable and a
more honourable action, than, having inveigled me into a
situation which places me so completely in your power, to
dishonour yourselves by propositions which dishonour me.
'By your leave, Sir Richard,' said the young nobleman, 'not till
we, have learned what measures can be taken for his Majesty's
personal safety.'
'Care not for me, young man,' said Charles Edward; 'when I was in
the society of Highland robbers and cattle-drovers, I was safer
than I now hold myself among the representatives of the best
blood in England. Farewell, gentlemen--I will shift for myself.'
'This must never be,' said Redgauntlet. 'Let me that brought you
to the point of danger, at least provide for your safe retreat.'
NARRATIVE CONTINUED
'I wait your orders,' said Nixon. 'I hope all's right!--excuse
my zeal.'
'I will deliver them myself to him,' said Redgauntlet; call him
hither.'
'But should your honour leave the presence?' said Nixon, still
lingering.
'That dog turns insolent and lazy,' said Redgauntlet; but I must
bear with him for a while.'
'Well then, hark ye, Ewart;--man your boat with your best hands,
and have her by the pier--get your other fellows on board the
brig--if you have any cargo left, throw it overboard; it shall be
all paid, five times over--and be ready for a start to Wales or
the Hebrides, or perhaps for Sweden or Norway.'
'No matter,' answered Nixon, 'none but a friend heard you. You
cannot have forgotten how Redgauntlet disarmed you this morning.'
'That I am, by G--,' said Ewart. 'No, the Spaniards could never
get my religion from me.'
'Aye, we all know that,' said the smuggler; 'but the snowball's
melting, I think.'
'Only that, instead of lying by the pier with your men on their
oars, if you will just carry your boat on board just now, and
take no notice of any signal from the shore, by G--d, Nanty
Ewart. I will make a man of you for life!'
'Oh ho! then the Jacobite gentry are not so safe as they think
themselves?' said Nanty.
'The devil they will!' said Ewart; 'and you have been the
informer, I suppose?'
'Yes; I have been ill paid for my service among the Redgauntlets
--have scarce got dog's wages--and been treated worse than ever
dog was used. I have the old fox and his cubs in the same trap
now, Nanty; and we'll see how a certain young lady will look
then. You see I am frank with you, Nanty.'
'And I will be as frank with you,' said the smuggler. 'You are a
d--d old scoundrel--traitor to the man whose bread you eat! Me
help to betray poor devils, that have been so often betrayed
myself! Not if they were a hundred Popes, Devils, and
Pretenders. I will back and tell them their danger--they are part
of cargo--regularly invoiced--put under my charge by the owners--
I'll back'--
'You are not stark mad?' said Nixon, who now saw he had
miscalculated in supposing Nanty's wild ideas of honour and
fidelity could be shaken even by resentment, or by his Protestant
partialities. 'You shall not go back--it is all a joke.'
Nanty staggered, but kept his feet. 'It has cut my back-bone
asunder,' he said; 'you have done me the last good office, and I
will not die ungrateful.'
'Why, them prisoner stranger folk, as you bid Cristal Nixon look
after. Lord love you! this is a large house enow, but we cannot
have separate lock-ups for folk, as they have in Newgate or in
Bedlam. Yonder's a mad beggar, that is to be a great man when he
wins a lawsuit, Lord help him!--Yonder's a Quaker and a lawyer
charged with a riot; and, ecod, I must make one key and one lock
keep them, for we are chokeful, and you have sent off old Nixon
that could have given one some help in this confusion. Besides,
they take up every one a room, and call for naughts on earth,
--excepting the old man, who calls lustily enough,--but he has
not a penny to pay shot.'
'Do as thou wilt with them,' said Redgauntlet, who had listened
impatiently to his statement; 'so thou dost but keep them from
getting out and making some alarm in the country, I care not.'
Into this, Joe, with little ceremony, and a good deal of noise,
introduced the Quaker and Fairford; the first descanting on the
immorality, the other on the illegality, of his proceedings; and
he turned a deaf ear both to the one and the other. Next he
pushed in, almost in headlong fashion, the unfortunate litigant,
who, having made some resistance at the threshold, had received a
violent thrust in consequence, and came rushing forward, like a
ram in the act of charging, with such impetus as must have
carried him to the top of the room, and struck the cocked hat
which sat perched on the top of his tow wig against Miss
Redgauntlet's person, had not the honest Quaker interrupted his
career by seizing him by the collar, and bringing him to a stand.
'Friend,' said he, with the real good-breeding which so often
subsists independently of ceremony, 'thou art no company for that
young person; she is, thou seest, frightened at our being so
suddenly thrust in hither; and although that be no fault of ours,
yet it will become us to behave civilly towards her. Wherefore
come thou with me to this window, and I will tell thee what it
concerns thee to know.'
'Well, but, friend,' said the Quaker, who observed that the young
lady still seemed to fear Peter's intrusion, 'I wish to hear thee
speak about this great lawsuit of thine, which has been matter of
such celebrity.'
'Celebrity! Ye may swear that,' said Peter, for the string was
touched to which his crazy imagination always vibrated. 'And I
dinna wonder that folk that judge things by their outward
grandeur, should think me something worth their envying. It's
very true that it is grandeur upon earth to hear ane's name
thunnered out along the long-arched roof of the Outer House,--
"Poor Peter Peebles against Plainstanes ET PER CONTRA;" a' the
best lawyers in the house fleeing like eagles to the prey; some
because they are in the cause, and some because they want to be
thought engaged (for there are tricks in other trades by selling
muslins)--to see the reporters mending their pens to take down
the debate--the Lords themselves pooin' in their chairs, like
folk sitting down to a gude dinner, and crying on the clerks for
parts and pendicles of the process, who, puir bodies, can do
little mair than cry on their closet-keepers to help them. To
see a' this,' continued Peter, in a tone of sustained rapture,
'and to ken that naething will be said or dune amang a' thae
grand folk, for maybe the feck of three hours, saving what
concerns you and your business--Oh, man, nae wonder that ye judge
this to be earthly glory! And yet, neighbour, as I was saying,
there be unco drawbacks--I whiles think of my bit house, where
dinner, and supper, and breakfast, used to come without the
crying for, just as if fairies had brought it--and the gude bed
at e'en--and the needfu' penny in the pouch. And then to see a'
ane's warldly substance capering in the air in a pair of
weighbauks, now up, now down, as the breath of judge or counsel
inclines it for pursuer or defender,--troth, man, there are times
I rue having ever begun the plea wark, though, maybe, when ye
consider the renown and credit I have by it, ye will hardly
believe what I am saying.'
'Indeed, friend,' said Joshua, with a sigh, 'I am glad thou hast
found anything in the legal contention which compensates thee for
poverty and hunger; but I believe, were other human objects of
ambition looked upon as closely, their advantages would be found
as chimerical as those attending thy protracted litigation.'
'But never mind, friend,' said Peter, 'I'll tell you the exact
state of the conjunct processes, and make you sensible that I can
bring mysell round with a wet finger, now I have my finger and my
thumb on this loup-the-dike loon, the lad Fairford.'
Alan Fairford was in the act of speaking to the masked lady (for
Miss Redgauntlet had retained her riding vizard) endeavouring to
assure her, as he perceived her anxiety, of such protection as he
could afford, when his own name, pronounced in a loud tone,
attracted his attention. He looked round, and seeing Peter
Peebles, as hastily turned to avoid his notice, in which he
succeeded, so earnest was Peter upon his colloquy with one of the
most respectable auditors whose attention he had ever been able
to engage. And by this little motion, momentary as it was, Alan
gained an unexpected advantage; for while he looked round, Miss
Lilias, I could never ascertain why, took the moment to adjust
her mask, and did it so awkwardly, that when her companion again
turned his head, he recognized as much of her features as
authorized him to address her as his fair client, and to press
his offers of protection and assistance with the boldness of a
former acquaintance.
'No, sir; my dear brother Darsie and I are connected by the bonds
of actual relationship; and I am not sorry to be the first to
tell this to the friend he most values.'
'I meant--I only meant to say,' said the young counsellor, his
presence of mind failing him for an instant--'that is, I meant to
ask where Darsie Latimer is at this moment.'
'In this very house, and under the guardianship of his uncle,
whom I believe you knew as a visitor of your father, under the
name of Mr. Herries of Birrenswork.'
'Let me hasten to him,' said Fairford; 'I have sought him through
difficulties and dangers--I must see him instantly.'
'For God's sake speak lower!' said Lilias, approaching her hand,
as if to stop him. 'The word may cost you your life. You do not
know--indeed you do not--the terrors of the situation in which we
at present stand, and in which I fear you also are involved by
your friendship for my brother.'
But Lilias exclaimed against this scheme. Her uncle, she said,
was a man who, in his moments of enthusiasm, knew neither remorse
nor fear. He was capable of visiting upon Darsie any injury
which he might conceive Fairford had rendered him--he was her
near kinsman also, and not an unkind one, and she deprecated any
effort, even in her brother's favour, by which his life must be
exposed to danger. Fairford himself remembered Father
Buonaventure, and made little question but that he was one of the
sons of the old Chevalier de Saint George; and with feelings
which, although contradictory of his public duty, can hardly be
much censured, his heart recoiled from being the agent by whom
the last scion of such a long line of Scottish princes should be
rooted up. He then thought of obtaining an audience, if
possible, of this devoted person, and explaining to him the utter
hopelessness of his undertaking, which he judged it likely that
the ardour of his partisans might have concealed from him. But
he relinquished this design as soon as formed. He had no doubt,
that any light which he could throw on the state of the country,
would come too late to be serviceable to one who was always
reported to have his own full share of the hereditary obstinacy
which had cost his ancestors so dear, and who, in drawing the
sword, must have thrown from him the scabbard.
Fairford shook off, rather indignantly, the large bony hand which
Peter had imposed upon his shoulder, and was about to say
something peevish, upon so unpleasant and insolent a mode of
interruption, when the door opened, a treble voice saying to the
sentinel, 'I tell you I maun be in, to see if Mr. Nixon's here;'
and little Benjie thrust in his mop-head and keen black eyes.
Ere he could withdraw it, Peter Peebles sprang to the door,
seized on the boy by the collar, and dragged him forward into the
room.
'What dost thou want?' said the Quaker, interfering; 'why dost
thou frighten the boy, friend Peebles?'
'I gave the bastard a penny to buy me snuff,' said the pauper,
'and he has rendered no account of his intromissions; but I'll
gar him as gude.'
'It is for the villain Nixon.' she said to Alan Fairford; 'open
it without scruple; that boy is his emissary; we shall now see
what the miscreant is driving at.'
Alan Fairford did not hesitate to read the little scrap of paper,
on which was written, 'All is prepared--keep them in play until I
come up. You may depend on your reward.--C. C.'
In the same breath, they were both at the half-opened door of the
room, Fairford entreating to speak with the Father Buonaventure,
and Lilias, equally vehemently, requesting a moment's interview
with her uncle. While the sentinel hesitated what to do, his
attention was called to a loud noise at the door, where a crowd
had been assembled in consequence of the appalling cry, that the
enemy were upon them, occasioned, as it afterwards proved, by
some stragglers having at length discovered the dead bodies of
Nanty Ewart and of Nixon.
ONLY a mutiny, do you say?' said Sir Richard Glendale; 'and the
lugger, the last hope of escape for,'--he looked towards
Charles,--'stands out to sea under a press of sail!'
'Do not concern yourself about me,' said the unfortunate prince;
'this is not the worst emergency in which it has been my lot to
stand; and if it were, I fear it not. Shift for yourselves, my
lords and gentlemen.'
'No, never!' said the young Lord --. 'Our only hope now is in
an honourable resistance.'
'True, most true,' answered Sir Richard Glendale. 'Let the king
be first cared for.'
'It is the way of our house,' said Redgauntlet; 'our courage ever
kindles highest on the losing side. I, too, feel that the
catastrophe I have brought on must not be survived by its author.
Let me first,' he said, addressing Charles, 'see your Majesty's
sacred person in such safety as can now be provided for it, and
then'--
Most threw themselves at his feet with weeping and entreaty; some
one or two slunk in confusion from the apartment, and were heard
riding off. Unnoticed in such a scene, Darsie, his sister, and
Fairford, drew together, and held each other by the hands, as
those who, when a vessel is about to founder in the storm,
determine to take their chance of life and death together.
'And are prepared for it, general,' said Redgauntlet; 'we are not
men to be penned up like sheep for the slaughter.'
'No words can shake our purpose,' said Redgauntlet, were your
whole command, as I suppose is the case, drawn round the house.'
'Hear ME, sir,' said the Wanderer, stepping forward; 'I suppose I
am the mark you aim at--I surrender myself willingly, to save
these gentlemen's danger--let this at least avail in their
favour.'
An exclamation of 'Never, never!' broke from the little body of
partisans, who threw themselves round the unfortunate prince, and
would have seized or struck down Campbell, had it not been that
he remained with his arms folded, and a look, rather indicating
impatience because they would not hear him, than the least
apprehension of violence at their hand.
'I thank you, sir,' said the general; 'and I reply, that the
answer to your question rests with yourself. Come, do not be
fools, gentlemen; there was perhaps no great harm meant or
intended by your gathering together in this obscure corner, for a
bear-bait or a cock-fight, or whatever other amusement you may
have intended, but it was a little imprudent, considering how you
stand with government, and it has occasioned some anxiety.
Exaggerated accounts of your purpose have been laid before
government by the information of a traitor in your own counsels;
and I was sent down post to take the command of a sufficient
number of troops, in case these calumnies should be found to have
any real foundation. I have come here, of course, sufficiently
supported both with cavalry and infantry, to do whatever might be
necessary; but my commands are--and I am sure they agree with my
inclination--to make no arrests, nay, to make no further
inquiries of any kind, if this good assembly will consider their
own interest so far as to give up their immediate purpose, and
return quietly home to their own houses.'
'ALL, without one single exception' said the general; 'such are
my orders. If you accept my terms, say so, and make haste; for
things may happen to interfere with his Majesty's kind purposes
towards you all.'
'I speak the king's very words, from his very lips,' replied the
general. '"I will," said his Majesty, "deserve the confidence of
my subjects by reposing my security in the fidelity of the
millions who acknowledge my title--in the good sense and prudence
of the few who continue, from the errors of education, to disown
it." His Majesty will not even believe that the most zealous
Jacobites who yet remain can nourish a thought of exciting a
civil war, which must be fatal to their families and themselves,
besides spreading bloodshed and ruin through a peaceful land. He
cannot even believe of his kinsman, that he would engage brave
and generous though mistaken men, in an attempt which must ruin
all who have escaped former calamities; and he is convinced,
that, did curiosity or any other motive lead that person to visit
this country, he would soon see it was his wisest course to
return to the continent; and his Majesty compassionates his
situation too much to offer any obstacle to his doing so.'
'Is this real?' said Redgauntlet. 'Can you mean this? Am I--
are all, are any of these gentlemen at liberty, without
interruption, to embark in yonder brig, which, I see, is now
again approaching the shore?'
'We have your word of honour for our protection,' said Sir
Richard Glendale, 'if we dissolve our meeting in obedience to
your summons?'
Not only that, Mr. Ingoldsby--or I WILL call you Mr. Redgauntlet
once more--you may stay in the offing for a tide, until you are
joined by any person who may remain at Fairladies. After that,
there will be a sloop of war on the station, and I need not say
your condition will then become perilous.'
Half-way betwixt the house and the beach, they saw the bodies of
Nanty Ewart and Cristal Nixon blackening in the sun.
'I follow you, sire, through life,' said Redgauntlet, 'as I would
have followed you to death. Permit me one moment.'
The prince then looked round, and seeing the abashed countenances
of his other adherents bent upon the ground, he hastened to say,
'Do not think that you, gentlemen, have obliged me less because
your zeal was mingled with prudence, entertained, I am sure, more
on my own account and on that of your country, than from selfish
apprehensions.'
'And now I shall not need it,' said Redgauntlet. 'I leave
England for ever; but I am not displeased that you should hear my
family adieus.--Nephew, come hither. In presence of General
Campbell, I tell you, that though to breed you up in my own
political opinions has been for many years my anxious wish, I am
now glad that it could not be accomplished. You pass under the
service of the reigning monarch without the necessity of changing
your allegiance--a change, however,' be added, looking around
him, which sits more easy on honourable men than I could have
anticipated; but some wear the badge of their loyalty on their
sleeve, and others in the heart. You will, from henceforth, be
uncontrolled master of all the property of which forfeiture could
not deprive your father--of all that belonged to him--excepting
this, his good sword' (laying his hand on the weapon he wore),
'which shall never fight for the House of Hanover; and as my hand
will never draw weapon more, I shall sink it forty fathoms deep
in the wide ocean. Bless you, young man! If I have dealt
harshly with you, forgive me. I had set my whole desires on one
point,--God knows, with no selfish purpose; and I am justly
punished by this final termination of my views, for having been
too little scrupulous in the means by which I pursued them.--
Niece, farewell, and may God bless you also!'
'No, sir,' said Lilias, seizing his hand eagerly. 'You have been
hitherto my protector,--you are now in sorrow, let me be your
attendant and your comforter in exile.'
The unfortunate Charles Edward had now given his last adieus to
his downcast adherents. He made a sign with his hand to
Redgauntlet, who came to assist him into the skiff. General
Campbell also offered his assistance, the rest appearing too much
affected by the scene which had taken place to prevent him.
They were seated in the boat, which presently pulled off from the
land. The Oxford divine broke out into a loud benediction, in
terms which General Campbell was too generous to criticize at the
time, or to remember afterwards;--nay, it is said, that, Whig and
Campbell as he was, he could not help joining in the universal
Amen! which resounded from the shore.
NOTES
The house in which Mrs. C-- resided in the old town of Edinburgh,
was a flat or story of a land accessible, as was then universal,
by a common stair. The family who occupied the story beneath
were her acquaintances, and she was in the habit of drinking tea
with them every evening. It was accordingly about six o'clock,
when, recovering herself from a deep fit of anxious reflection,
she was about to leave the parlour in which she sat in order to
attend this engagement. The door through which she was to pass
opened, as was very common in Edinburgh, into a dark passage. In
this passage, and within a yard of her when she opened the door,
stood the apparition of her kinsman, the deceased officer, in his
full tartans, and wearing his bonnet. Terrified at what she saw,
or thought she saw, she closed the door hastily, and, sinking on
her knees by a chair, prayed to be delivered from the horrors of
the vision. She remained in that posture till her friends below
tapped on the door, to intimate that tea was ready. Recalled to
herself by the signal, she arose, and, on opening the apartment
door, again was confronted by the visionary Highlander, whose
bloody brow bore token, on this second appearance, to the death
he had died. Unable to endure this repetition of her terrors,
Mrs. C-- sank on the door in a swoon. Her friends below,
startled with the noise, came upstairs, and, alarmed at the
situation in which they found her, insisted on her going to bed
and taking some medicine, in order to compose what they took for
a nervous attack. They had no sooner left her in quiet, than the
apparition of the soldier was once more visible in the apartment.
This time she took courage and said, 'In the name of God, Donald,
why do you haunt one who respected and loved you when living?'
To which he answered readily, in Gaelic, 'Cousin, why did you not
speak sooner? My rest is disturbed by your unnecessary
lamentation--your tears scald me in my shroud. I come to tell
you that my untimely death ought to make no difference in your
views for your son; God will raise patrons to supply my place and
he will live to the fullness of years, and die honoured and at
peace.' The lady of course followed her kinsman's advice and as
she was accounted a person of strict veracity, we may conclude
the first apparition an illusion of the fancy, the final one a
lively dream suggested by the other two.
NOTE 4.--PETER PEEBLES
This small dark coffee-house, now burnt down, was the resort of
such writers and clerks belonging to the Parliament House above
thirty years ago as retained the ancient Scottish custom of a
meridian, as it was called, or noontide dram of spirits. If
their proceedings were watched, they might be seen to turn
fidgety about the hour of noon, and exchange looks with each
other from their separate desks, till at length some one of
formal and dignified presence assumed the honour of leading the
band, when away they went, threading the crowd like a string of
wild fowl, crossed the square or close, and following each other
into the coffee-house, received in turn from the hand of the
waiter, the meridian, which was placed ready at the bar. This
they did, day by day: and though they did not speak to each
other, they seemed to attach a certain degree of sociability to
performing the ceremony in company.
GLOSSARY
ABOON, above.
AD LITEM, in law.
AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, for the public defence.
ADUST, looking as if burned or scorched.
AE, one.
AFFLATUS, breath, inspiration.
AIRT, direct.
ALCANDER, a Greek soothsayer.
ALDEBORONTIPHOSCOPHORNIO, a courtier in H. Carey's burlesque,
CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS.
ALIMENTARY, nourishing.
ALQUIFE, an enchanter in the mediaeval romances of knight-
errantry.
AMADIS, a hero of the romances, especially in Amadis of Gaul.
ANENT, about.
ANES, once.
ANNO DOMINI, in the year of the Lord.
ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM, AD FEMINAM, lit. 'the argument to a man,
to a woman,' refutation of a man's argument by an example
drawn from his own conduct.
ARIES, earnest-money, a gift.
ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS, art is long, life short.
ARS MEDENDI, art of medicine.
APPROBATE, approve.
ATLANTES, a character in ORLANDO FURIOSO.
AULD REEKIE, Edinburgh.
ADVOCATO DEL DIABOLO, lit. 'the devil's advocate', one whose duty
it is to oppose the canonization of a person on whose behalf
claims to sanctity are made.
AWSOME, awful, fearful.
DAFT, crazy.
DAIS, a canopy, a table placed above the others, a room of state.
DARGLE, dell.
DAURG, day's work.
DE APICIBUS JURIS, from the high places of the law.
DE PERICULO ET COMMODO REI VENDITAE, concerning the risk and
profit of sales.
DEAD-THRAW, death-thraw.
DEBOSHED, debauched.
DEFORCEMENT--SPULZIE--SOUTHRIEF, legal terms for resisting an
officer of law.
DEIL, devil.
DELATE, accuse.
DELICT, misdemeanour, QUASI DELICT, apparent offence.
DEPONE, to testify.
DERNIER RESORT, last resort.
DIABLERIE, sorcery, witchcraft.
DILIGENCE, writ of execution, coach.
DING, to knock, beat down.
DIRDUM, uproar, disturbance.
DITTAY, an indictment.
DIVOT, thin turf used for thatching cottages.
DOCH AN DORROCH, the stirrup cup.
DOMINUS LITIS, one of the principals in a law suit.
DOOL, sorrow, sad consequences.
DOOR-CHEEK, door-post.
DOUCE, respectable.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE, persons of the drama.
DRAPPIT, fried.
DRIBBLE, a drop.
DRIFT, drift-snow.
DULCINEA, Don Quixote's imaginary mistress.
DUNSTABLE, something simple and matter-of-fact.
DYVOUR, bankrupt.
EKE, addition.
EMBONPOINT, plumpness.
EN CROUPE, riding behind one another.
ET PER CONTRA, and on the other side.
EVITE, avoid.
EX COMITATE, out of courtesy.
EX MISERICORDIA, out of pity.
EXCEPTIO FIRMAT REGULAM, the exception proves the rule.
EXOTIC, of foreign origin.
FACTOR LOCO TUTORIS, an agent acting in place of a guardian.
FARDEL, burden.
FASH, FASHERIE, trouble.
FECK, space.
FEMME DE CHAMBRE, chamber-maid.
FIERI, to be made.
FLACON, a smelling bottle.
FLAP, gust.
FLIP, a drink consisting of beer and spirit sweetened.
FLORY, frothy.
FORBY, besides.
FORENSIC, legal.
FORFOUGHEN, out of breath, distressed.
FORPIT, fourth part of a peck.
FORTALICE, a small outwork.
FRIST, to postpone, give credit,
FUGIE, fugitive.
FUNCTUS OFFICIO, having finished my duties, 'out of office'.
GABERLUNZIE, a beggar.
GAEN, gone.
GALLOWAY, a strong Scotch cob.
GANGREL, wandering, a vagrant.
GAR, to force, make.
GATE, way, road.
GAUGER, an exciseman.
GENTRICE, gentle blood.
GIFF-GAFF, give and take.
GIRDED, hooped like a barrel.
GIRN, to grin, cry.
GLAIKET, giddy, rash.
GLIFF, glimpse, moment,
GOWFF BA', golf ball.
GRAINED, groaned.
GRANA INVECTA ET ILLATA, grain brought and imported.
GRAT, wept.
GRILLADE, a broiled dish.
GRIT, great.
GROSSART, gooseberry.
GRUE, to creep, shiver,
GUDESIRE, grandfather.
GUIDE, to deal with, to employ.
GUMPLE-FOISTED, sulky, sullen.
GWAY, very.
GYTES, contemptuous name for a young child, a brat.
HAFFLINS, half-grown.
HAILL, all, the whole.
HAIRST, harvest.
HAMESUCKEN, assaulting a person in his own house.
HAMSHACKLE, to fasten.
HANK, a hold.
HAP, to hop, turn from.
HARPOCRATES, an Egyptian god, supposed by the Greeks to be the
god of silence.
HAUGH, holm, low-lying flat ground.
HAULD, place of abode.
HAVINGS, behaviour.
HEFTED, closed, as a knife in its haft.
HELLICAT, extravagant, light-headed.
HEMPEY, rogue.
HET, hot.
HEUCK, sickle.
HINC ILLAE LACRYMAE, hence these tears.
HINNY, honey, a term of endearment.
HIPPOGRIFF, a fabulous winged animal, half horse and half griffin.
HODDIN-GREY, cloth manufactured from undyed wool.
HOMOLOGATING, ratifying, approving.
HOOKS, OFF THE, light-headed.
HOSE-NET, a small net used for rivulet fishing.
HOW-COME-SO, light-headed.
HUMOURSOME, subject to moods.
HUSSEY, lady's needle-case.
HYSON, green tea from China.
LAIGH, low.
LAND-LOUPER, runagate, vagabond.
LARES, household gods, the special divinities of a family.
LAP, leaped; fold.
LAVE, rest, remainder.
LAWING, inn reckoning.
LEAL, loyal, true.
LEASING-MAKING, lies, slander, seditious words.
LEASOWES, the estate of the poet Shenstone.
LEE-SIDE, the side of a vessel farthest from the point where the
wind blows.
LEESOME LANE, his dear self alone.
LEEVIN, living.
LEE WAY, arrears of work.
LEG, TO MAKE A, to bow.
LETTRES DE CACHET, sealed letters issued by the King of France,
conferring power over the liberty of others.
LEX AQUARUM, the law of the waters.
LIMMER, a loose woman, a jade.
LING, thin long grass, heather.
LOANING, a meadow, pasture where the cows were milked,
LOE, love.
LOON, fellow, rogue.
LOOPY, crafty.
LOUIS-D'OR, a French gold coin worth from 16s, 6d. to 18s. 9d.
LOUP, leap.
LOUP-THE-DYKE, giddy, runaway.
LOUP THE TETHER, breaking loose from restraint.
LOVELACE AND BELFORD, characters in CLARISSA HARLOWE.
LUCKY, a name given to an elderly dame.
LUG, the ear.
LUM, chimney.
SANCTA WINIFREDA, ORA PRO NOBIS, Saint Winifred, pray for us.
SARTUM ATQUE TECTUM, repaired and covered.
SAT EST, it is enough.
SAWNEY, a nickname for a Scotchman.
SCARBOROUGH WARNING, the blow before the threat.
SCOWP, quaff.
SCRUB, the name of a footman in the BEAUX' STRATAGEM (Geo.
Farquhar, 1704).
SCULDUDDERY, loose, immoral.
SEALGH, seal,
SEA-MAWS, sea-mews.
SECUNDUM ARTEM, according to the rules of his art.
SEDERUNT, a sitting of the courts.
SEMPLE, simple, not of gentle birth,
SHILPIT, weak; poor, shabby.
SHINGLES, thin boards used for roofs.
SI NON CASTE, CAUTE TAMEN, if not for virtue's sake, yet for
caution.
SIB, kin.
SIGMA, the Greek S.
SINE DIE, without a date, indefinitely.
SIS MEMOR MEI, be mindful of me.
SKELLOCH, screech.
SKINKER, a server of liquor.
SKIRL, to scream.
SKIVIE, harebrained.
SLEEKIT, smooth.
SLOKEN, quench.
SNEESHING, snuff.
SNELL, sharp, terrible.
SNICKERS, sniggers.
SOCIETAS EST MATER DISCORDIARUM, partnership is the mother of
quarrels.
SOLITAIRE, an ornament for the neck.
SOLON, the law-giver of Athens.
SONSY, good-humoured, sensible.
SORT, to chastise; to manage.
SORTES VIRGILIANAE, Virgilian lots; opening the works of Virgil at
random and taking the first passage read for counsel.
SOUGH, a breath, a chant.
SOUPLE, active; supple in mind or body.
SOUTER'S CLOD, a kind of coarse black bread.
SPATTERDASHES, coverings for the legs to protect them from mud.
SPEER, ask.
SPLICE THE MAIN BRACE, have an extra allowance of spirits.
SPLORE, a frolic, quarrel.
SPRATTLE, struggle, scramble.
SPRING, a merry tune.
SPRUSH, spruce.
SPULE-BLADE, shoulder blade,
SPUNK, courage, fire: SPUNKS, matches.
STEND, take long steps.
STEWARTRY, territory in Scotland administered by a steward.
STIBBLER, a divinity student, a probationer.
STILTS, plough-handles.
STUNKARD, sullen, obstinate.
SUA QUEMQUE TRAHIT VOLUPTAS, his own peculiar pleasure allures
each.
SURTOUT, a tight-fitting, broad-skirted outer coat.
SWIPES, small beer.
TAES, toes.
TALIS QUALIS, of some kind.
TAM MARTE QUAM MERCURIO, as much devoted to Mars as to Mercury (as
much a soldier as a pleader).
TASS, a glass.
TAU, the Greek: T.
TERRA FIRMA, firm earth.
TESTE ME PER TOTUM NOCTEM VIGILANTE, I am witness as I was awake
all night.
TETE-A-TETE, a private conversation.
THAIRM, catgut.
THEMIS, the goddess of law and justice.
THIRLAGE, mortgaging of property.
THREAP, aver.
THUMBIKINS, thumbscrews, instruments of torture.
TIMOTHEUS, a famous musician.
TIPPENY, twopenny ale,
TIRTEAFUERA, a character in DON QUIXOTE, the doctor in Sancho
Panza's island government.
TITHER, the other.
TOD, a bush, a fox.
TOOM, empty.
TOUR OUT, to look about.
TOY, a linen cap; a head-dress hanging down over the shoulders.
TRANCES, passages.
TUPTOWING, beating, from the Greek verb 'tupto', to strike.
TWALPENNY, one penny sterling.
TWASOME, a pair or couple.
TYNE, loss or forfeit.
TYRO, TYRONES, beginner, beginners; novice.
UNCO, very, uncommon, strange.
URGANDA, an enchantress in the romance of AMADIS OF GAUL.
USQUEBAUGH, whisky.
YAULD, active.
YELLOCH, yell.
YETTS, gates.
YILL, ale.